Like
other national literatures, American literature was shaped by the history of
the country that produced it. For almost a century and a half, America was
merely a group of colonies scattered along the eastern seaboard of the North
American continent--colonies from which a few hardy souls tentatively ventured
westward. After a successful rebellion against the motherland, America became
the United States, a nation. By the end of the 19th century this nation
extended southward to the Gulf of Mexico, northward to the 49th parallel, and
westward to the Pacific. By the end of the 19th century, too, it had taken its
place among the powers of the world--its fortunes so interrelated with those of
other nations that inevitably it became involved in two world wars and,
following these conflicts, with the problems of Europe and East Asia.
Meanwhile, the rise of science and industry, as well as changes in ways of thinking
and feeling, wrought many modifications in people's lives. All these factors in
the development of the United States molded the literature of the country.

The
17th century

American
literature at first was naturally a colonial literature, by authors who were
Englishmen and who thought and wrote as such. John Smith, a soldier of fortune,
is credited with initiating American literature. His chief books included A
True Relation of . . . Virginia . . . (1608) and The generall Historie of
Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624). Although these volumes
often glorified their author, they were avowedly written to explain colonizing
opportunities to Englishmen. In time, each colony was similarly described:
Daniel Denton's Brief Description of New York (1670), William Penn's Brief Account
of the Province of Pennsylvania (1682), and Thomas Ashe's Carolina (1682) were
only a few of many works praising America as a land of economic promise.Such
writers acknowledged British allegiance, but others stressed the differences of
opinion that spurred the colonists to leave their homeland. More important,
they argued questions of government involving the relationship between church
and state. The attitude that most authors attacked was jauntily set forth by
Nathaniel Ward of Massachusetts Bay in The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America
(1647). Ward amusingly defended the status quo and railed at colonists who
sponsored newfangled notions. A variety of counterarguments to such a conservative
view were published. John Winthrop's Journal (written 1630-49) told
sympathetically of the attempt of Massachusetts Bay Colony to form a
theocracy--a state with God at its head and with its laws based upon the Bible.
Later defenders of the theocratic ideal were Increase Mather and his son
Cotton. William Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation (through 1646) showed
how his pilgrim Separatists broke completely with Anglicanism. Even more
radical than Bradford was Roger Williams, who, in a series of controversial
pamphlets, advocated not only the separation of church and state but also the
vesting of power in the people and the tolerance of different religious
beliefs.The utilitarian writings of the 17th century included biographies,
treatises, accounts of voyages, and sermons. There were few achievements in
drama or fiction, since there was a widespread prejudice against these forms.
Bad but popular poetry appeared in the Bay Psalm Book of 1640 and in Michael
Wigglesworth's summary in doggerel verse of Calvinistic belief, The Day of Doom
(1662). There was some poetry, at least, of a higher order. Anne Bradstreet of
Massachusetts wrote some lyrics published in The Tenth Muse (1650), which movingly
conveyed her feelings concerning religion and her family. Ranked still higher
by modern critics is a poet whose works were not discovered and published until
1939: Edward Taylor, an English-born minister and physician who lived in Boston
and Westfield, Massachusetts. Less touched by gloom than the typical Puritan,
Taylor wrote lyrics that showed his delight in Christian belief and
experience.All 17th-century American writings were in the manner of British
writings of the same period. John Smith wrote in the tradition of geographic
literature, Bradford echoed the cadences of the King James Bible, while the
Mathers and Roger Williams wrote bejeweled prose typical of the day. Anne
Bradstreet's poetic style derived from a long line of British poets, including
Spenser and Sidney, while Taylor was in the tradition of such Metaphysical
poets as George Herbert and John Donne. Both the content and form of the
literature of this first century in America were thus markedly English.

The
18th century

In
America in the early years of the 18th century, some writers, such as Cotton
Mather, carried on the older traditions. His huge history and biography of
Puritan New England, Magnalia Christi Americana, in 1702, and his vigorous
Manuductio ad Ministerium, or introduction to the ministry, in 1726, were
defenses of ancient Puritan convictions. Jonathan Edwards, initiator of the
Great Awakening, a religious revival that stirred the eastern seacoast for many
years, eloquently defended his burning belief in Calvinistic doctrine--of the
concept that man, born totally depraved, could attain virtue and salvation only
through God's grace--in his powerful sermons and most notably in the
philosophical treatise Freedom of Will (1754). He supported his claims by
relating them to a complex metaphysical system and by reasoning brilliantly in
clear and often beautiful prose.But Mather and Edwards were defending a doomed
cause. Liberal New England ministers such as John Wise and Jonathan Mayhew
moved toward a less rigid religion. Samuel Sewall heralded other changes in his
amusing Diary, covering the years 1673-1729. Though sincerely religious, he
showed in daily records how commercial life in New England replaced rigid
Puritanism with more worldly attitudes. The Journal of Mme Sara Knight
comically detailed a journey that lady took to New York in 1704. She wrote
vividly of what she saw and commented upon it from the standpoint of an
orthodox believer, but a quality of levity in her witty writings showed that
she was much less fervent than the Pilgrim founders had been. In the South,
William Byrd of Virginia, an aristocratic plantation owner, contrasted sharply
with gloomier predecessors. His record of a surveying trip in 1728, The History
of the Dividing Line, and his account of a visit to his frontier properties in
1733, A Journey to the Land of Eden, were his chief works. Years in England, on
the Continent, and among the gentry of the South had created gaiety and grace
of expression, and, although a devout Anglican, Byrd was as playful as the
Restoration wits whose works he clearly admired.The wrench of the American
Revolution emphasized differences that had been growing between American and
British political concepts. As the colonists moved to the belief that rebellion
was inevitable, fought the bitter war, and worked to found the new nation's
government, they were influenced by a number of very effective political writers,
such as Samuel Adams and John Dickinson, both of whom favoured the colonists,
and Loyalist Joseph Galloway. But two figures loomed above these--Benjamin
Franklin and Thomas Paine.Franklin, born in 1706, had started to publish his
writings in his brother's newspaper, the New England Courant, as early as 1722.
This newspaper championed the cause of the "Leather Apron" man and
the farmer and appealed by using easily understood language and practical
arguments. The idea that common sense was a good guide was clear in both the
popular Poor Richard's almanac, which Franklin edited between 1732 and 1757 and
filled with prudent and witty aphorisms purportedly written by uneducated but
experienced Richard Saunders, and in the author's Autobiography, written
between 1771 and 1788, a record of his rise from humble circumstances that
offered worldly wise suggestions for future success.Franklin's self-attained
culture, deep and wide, gave substance and skill to varied articles, pamphlets,
and reports that he wrote concerning the dispute with Great Britain, many of
them extremely effective in stating and shaping the colonists' cause.Thomas
Paine went from his native England to Philadelphia and became a magazine editor
and then, about 14 months later, the most effective propagandist for the
colonial cause. His pamphlet "Common Sense" (January 1776) did much
to influence the colonists to declare their independence. "The American
Crisis" papers (December 1776-December 1783) spurred Americans to fight on
through the blackest years of the war. Based upon Paine's simple deistic
beliefs, they showed the conflict as a stirring melodrama with the angelic
colonists against the forces of evil. Such white and black picturings were
highly effective propaganda. Another reason for Paine's success was his poetic
fervour, which found expression in impassioned words and phrases long to be
remembered and quoted.

The
19th century

Early
19th-century literature

After
the American Revolution, and increasingly after the War of 1812, American
writers were exhorted to produce a literature that was truly native. As if in
response, four authors of very respectable stature appeared. William Cullen
Bryant, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe initiated
a great half century of literary development.Bryant, a New Englander by birth,
attracted attention in his 23rd year when the first version of his poem
"Thanatopsis" (1817) appeared. This, as well as some later poems, was
written under the influence of English 18th-century poets. Still later,
however, under the influence of Wordsworth and other Romantics, he wrote nature
lyrics that vividly represented the New England scene. Turning to journalism,
he had a long career as a fighting liberal editor of The Evening Post. He
himself was overshadowed, in renown at least, by a native-born New Yorker, Washington
Irving.Irving, youngest member of a prosperous merchant family, joined with
ebullient young men of the town in producing the Salmagundi papers (1807-08),
which took off the foibles of Manhattan's citizenry. This was followed by A
History of New York (1809), by "Diedrich Knickerbocker," a burlesque
history that mocked pedantic scholarship and sniped at the old Dutch families.
Irving's models in these works were obviously Neoclassical English satirists,
from whom he had learned to write in a polished, bright style. Later, having
met Sir Walter Scott and having become acquainted with imaginative German
literature, he introduced a new Romantic note in The Sketch Book (1819-20),
Bracebridge Hall (1822), and other works. He was the first American writer to
win the ungrudging (if somewhat surprised) respect of British critics.James
Fenimore Cooper won even wider fame. Following the pattern of Sir Walter
Scott's "Waverley" novels, he did his best work in the
"Leatherstocking" tales (1823-41), a five-volume series celebrating
the career of a great frontiersman named Natty Bumppo. His skill in weaving
history into inventive plots and in characterizing his compatriots brought him
acclaim not only in America and England but on the continent of Europe as
well.Edgar Allan Poe, reared in the South, lived and worked as an author and
editor in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, and New York City. His work was
shaped largely by analytical skill that showed clearly in his role as an
editor: time after time he gauged the taste of readers so accurately that
circulation figures of magazines under his direction soared impressively. It
showed itself in his critical essays, wherein he lucidly explained and
logically applied his criteria. His gothic tales of terror were written in
accordance with his findings when he studied the most popular magazines of the
day. His masterpieces of terror--"The Fall of the House of Usher"
(1839), "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842), "The Cask of
Amontillado" (1846), and others--were written according to a carefully worked
out psychological method. So were his detective stories, such as "The
Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), which historians credited as the first
of the genre. As a poet, he achieved fame with "The Raven" (1845).
His work, especially his critical writings and carefully crafted poems, had
perhaps a greater influence in France, where they were translated by Charles
Baudelaire, than in his own country.Two Southern novelists were also
outstanding in the earlier part of the century: John Pendleton Kennedy and
William Gilmore Simms. In Swallow Barn (1832), Kennedy wrote delightfully of
life on the plantations. Simms's forte was the writing of historical novels
like those of Scott and Cooper, which treated the history of the frontier and
his native South Carolina. The Yemassee (1835) and Revolutionary romances show
him at his best.

The
20th century

Writing
from 1914 to 1945

Important
movements in drama, poetry, fiction, and criticism took form in the years
before, during, and after World War I. The eventful period that followed the
war left its imprint upon books of all kinds. Literary forms of the period were
extraordinarily varied, and in drama, poetry, and fiction leading authors
tended toward radical technical experiments.Experiments in dramaAlthough drama
had not been a major art form in the 19th century, no type of writing was more
experimental than a new drama that arose in rebellion against the glib
commercial stage. In the early years of the 20th century, Americans traveling
in Europe encountered a vital, flourishing theatre; returning home, some of
them became active in founding the Little Theatre movement throughout the
country. Freed from commercial limitations, playwrights experimented with
dramatic forms and methods of production, and in time producers, actors, and
dramatists appeared who had been trained in college classrooms and community
playhouses. Some Little Theatre groups became commercial producers--for
example, the Washington Square Players, founded in 1915, which became the
Theatre Guild (first production in 1919). The resulting drama was marked by a
spirit of innovation and by a new seriousness and maturity.Eugene O'Neill, the
most admired dramatist of the period, was a product of this movement. He worked
with the Provincetown Players before his plays were commercially produced. His
dramas were remarkable for their range. Beyond the Horizon (first performed
1920), Anna Christie (1921), Desire Under the Elms (1924), and The Iceman
Cometh (1946) were naturalistic works, while The Emperor Jones (1920) and The
Hairy Ape (1922) made use of the Expressionistic techniques developed in German
drama in the period 1914-24. He also employed a stream-of-consciousness form in
Strange Interlude (1928) and produced a work that combined myth, family drama,
and psychological analysis in Mourning Becomes Electra (1931).No other
dramatist was as generally praised as O'Neill, but many others wrote plays that
reflected the growth of a serious and varied drama, including Maxwell Anderson,
whose verse dramas have dated badly, and Robert E. Sherwood, a Broadway
professional who wrote both comedy (Reunion in Vienna [1931]) and tragedy
(There Shall Be No Night [1940]). Marc Connelly wrote touching fantasy in a
Negro folk biblical play, The Green Pastures (1930). Like O'Neill, Elmer Rice
made use of both Expressionistic techniques (The Adding Machine [1923]) and
naturalism (Street Scene [1929]). Lillian Hellman wrote powerful, well-crafted
melodramas in The Children's Hour (1934) and The Little Foxes (1939). Radical
theatre experiments included Marc Blitzstein's savagely satiric musical The
Cradle Will Rock (1937) and the work of Orson Welles and John Houseman for the
government-sponsored Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Theatre
Project. The premier radical theatre of the decade was the Group Theatre
(1931-41) under Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, which became best known for
presenting the work of Clifford Odets. In Waiting for Lefty (1935), a stirring
plea for labour unionism, Odets roused the audience to an intense pitch of
fervour, and in Awake and Sing (1935), perhaps the best play of the decade, he
created a lyrical work of family conflict and youthful yearning. Other
important plays by Odets for the Group Theatre were Paradise Lost (1935),
Golden Boy (1937), and Rocket to the Moon (1938). Thornton Wilder used stylized
settings and poetic dialogue in Our Town (1938) and turned to fantasy in The
Skin of Our Teeth (1942). William Saroyan shifted his lighthearted, anarchic
vision from fiction to drama with My Heart's in the Highlands and The Time of
Your Life (both 1939).

Samuel Clemens was born in Missouri in 1835. He grew up
in the town of Hannibal, Missouri, which would become the model for St.
Petersburg, the fictional town where Huckleberry Finn begins. Missouri was a
"slave state" during this period, and Clemens' family owned a few
slaves. In Missouri, most slaves worked as domestic servants, rather than on
the large agricultural plantations that most slaves elsewhere in the United
States experienced. This domestic slavery is what Twain generally describes in
Huckleberry Finn, even when the action occurs in the deep South. The
institution of slavery figures prominently in the novel and is important in
developing both the theme and the two most important characters, Huck and Jim.

Twain received a brief formal education, before going to
work as an apprentice in a print shop. He would later find work on a steamboat
on the Mississippi River. Twain developed a lasting afiection for the
Mississippi and life on a steamboat, and would immortalize both in Life on the
Mississippi (1883), and in certain scenes of Tom Sawyer (1876), and Huckleberry
Finn (1885). He took his pseudonym, "Mark Twain," from the call a
steamboat worker would make when the ship reached a (safe) depth of two
fathoms. Twain would go on to work as a journalist in San Francisco and Nevada
in the 1860s. He soon discovered his talent as a humorist, and by 1865 his humorous
stories were attracting national attention.

In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon of New York State.
The family moved to Hartford, Connecticut, to a large, ornate house paid for
with the royalties from Twain's successful literary adventures. At Hartford and
during stays with Olivia's family in New York State, Twain wrote The Gilded
Age, co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner in 1873 and The Prince and the
Pauper (1882), as well as the two books already mentioned. Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn was finally published in 1885. Twain had begun the book years earlier, but
the writing was done in spurts of inspiration interrupted by long periods
during which the manuscript sat in the author's desk. Despite the economic
crisis that plagued the United States then, the book became a huge popular and
financial success. It would become a classic of American literature and receive
acclaim around the world{today it has been published in at least twenty-seven
languages.

Still, at the time of publication, the author was
bothered by the many bad reviews it received in the national press. The book
was principally attacked for its alleged indecency. After the 1950s, the chief
attacks on the book would be against its alleged racism or racial bigotry. For
various reasons, the book frequently has been banned from US schools and
children's libraries, though it was never really intended as a children's book.
Nonetheless, the book has been widely read ever since its first publication
well over a century ago, an exception to Twain's definition of a classic as
"a book which people praise and don't read."

Characters

Huckleberry Finn { The protagonist and
narrator of the novel. Huck is the thirteen or fourteen year-old son of the
local drunk in the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, at the start of the novel.
He is kidnapped by his father, Pap, from the "sivilizing" in uence of
the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, and then fakes his own death to escape. He
meets Jim on Jackson's Island. The rest of the novel is largely motivated by
two conflicts: the external con ict to achieve Jim's freedom, and the internal
con ict within Huck between his own sense of right and wrong and society's.
Huck has a series of "adventures," making many observations on human
nature and the South as he does. He progressively rejects the values of the
dominant society and matures morally as he does. Jim { A slave who escaped from
Miss Watson after she considered selling him down river. He encounters Huck on
Jackson's Island, and the two become friends and spend most of the rest of the
novel together. Jim deeply grieves his separation from his wife and two
children and dreams of getting them back. He is an intensely human character,
perhaps the novel's most complex. Through his example, Huck learns to
appreciate the humanity of black people, overcoming his society's bigotry and
making a break with its moral code. Twain also uses him to demonstrate racial
equality. But Jim himself remains somewhat enigmatic; he seems both comrade and
father figure to Huck, though Huck, the youthful narrator, may not be able to thoroughly
evaluate his friend, and so the reader has to suppose some of his qualities.

The Duke and Dauphin { These two criminals
appear for much of the novel. Their real names are never given, but the younger
man, about thirty years old, claims to be the Duke of Bridgewater, and is
called both "the Duke" and "Bridgewater" in the novel,
though for the sake of clarity, he is only called "the Duke" here.
The much older man claims to be the son of Louis XVI, the executed French king.
"Dauphin" was the title given to heirs to the French throne. He is
mostly called "the king" in the novel (since his father is dead, he
would be the rightful king), though he is called "the Dauphin" in
this study guide since the name is more distinctive. The two show themselves to
be truly bad when they separate a slave family at the Wilks household, and
later sell Jim.

Tom Sawyer { Huck's friend, and the protagonist
of Tom Sawyer, the novel for which Huckleberry Finn is ostensibly the sequel.
He is in many ways Huck's foil, given to exotic plans and romantic adventure
literature, while Huck is more down-to-earth. He also turns out to be
profoundly selfish.

On the whole, Tom is identified with the
"civilzation" from which Huck is alienated. Other characters, in
order of appearance Widow Douglas and Miss Watson { Two wealthy sisters who
live together in a large house in St. Petersburg. Miss Watson is the older
sister, gaunt and severe-looking. She also adheres the strongest to the hypocritical
religious and ethical values of the dominant society. Widow Douglas, meanwhile,
is somewhat gentler in her beliefs and has more patience with the mischievous
Huckleberry. She adopted Huck at the end of the last novel, Tom Sawyer, and he
is in her care at the start of Huckleberry Finn. When Miss Watson considers
selling Jim down to New Orleans, away from his wife and children and deep into
the plantation system, Jim escapes. She eventually repents, making provision in
her will for Jim to be freed, and dies two months before the novel ends.

Pap { Huckleberry's father and the town
drunk and ne'er- do-well. When he appears at the beginning of the novel, he is
a human wreck, his skin a disgusting ghost-like white, and his clothes
hopelessly tattered. Like Huck, he is a member of the least privileged class of
whites, and is illiterate. He is angry that his son is getting an education. He
wants to get hold of Huck's money, presumably to spend it on alcohol. He
kidnaps Huck and holds him deep in the woods. When Huck fakes his own murder,
Pap is nearly lynched when suspicions turn his way. But he escapes, and Jim
eventually finds his dead body on an abandoned houseboat.

Judge Thatcher { Judge Thatcher is in
charge of safeguarding the money Huck and Tom won at the end of Tom Sawyer.
When Huck discovers his father has come to town, he wisely signs his fortune
over to the Judge. Judge Thatcher has a daughter, Becky, whom Huck calls
"Bessie."

Aunt Polly { Tom Sawyer's aunt and
guardian. She appears at the end of Huckleberry Finn and properly identifies
Huck, who has pretended to be Tom; and Tom, who has pretended to be his
brother, Sid (who never appears in this novel).

The Grangerfords { The master of the
Grangerford clan is "Colonel"Grangerford, who has a wife. The children
are Bob, the oldest, then Tom, then Charlotte, aged twenty- five, Sophia,
twenty, and Buck, the youngest, about thirteen or fourteen. They also had a
deceased daughter, Emme- line, who made unintentionally humorous, maudlin
pictures and poems for the dead. Huckleberry thinks the Grangerfords are all
physically beautiful. They live on a large estate worked by many slaves. Their
house is decked out in humorously tacky finery that Huckleberry innocently
admires. The Grangerfords are in a feud with the Shepardsons, though no one can
remember the cause of the feud or see any real reason to continue it. When
Sophia runs off with a Shepardson, the feud reignites, and Buck and another boy
are shot. With the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons, Twain illustrates the
bouts of irrational brutality to which the South was prone.

The Wilks Family { The deceased Peter Wilks
has three daughters, Mary Jane, Susan, and Joanne (whom Huck calls "the
Harelip"). Mary Jane, the oldest, takes charge of the sisters' afiairs.
She is beautiful and kind- hearted, but easily swindled by the Duke and
Dauphin. Susan is the next youngest. Joanna possess a cleft palate (a birth
defect) and so Huck somewhat tastelessly refers to her as "the Hare
Lip" (another name for cleft palate). She initially suspects Huck and the
Duke and Dauphin, but eventually falls for the scheme like the others.

The Phelps family { The Phelps family
includes Aunt Sally, Uncle Silas and their children. They also own several
slaves. Sally and Silas are generally kind-hearted, and Silas in particular is
a complete innocent. Tom and Huck are able to continue playing pranks on them
for quite some time before they suspect anything is wrong. Sally, however,
displays a chilling level of bigotry toward blacks, which many of her fellow
Southerners likely share. The town

in which they live also cruelly kills the Duke and
Dauphin. With the Phelps, Twain contrasts the good side of Southern
civilization with its bad side.

Summary

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was finally published in
1885. Twain had begun the book years earlier, but the writing was done in
spurts of inspiration interrupted by long periods during which the manuscript
sat in the author's desk. Despite the economic crisis that plagued the United
States then, the book became a huge popular and financial success. It would
become a classic of American literature and receive acclaim around the
world{today it has been published in at least twenty-seven languages.

Still,
at the time of publication, the author was bothered by the many bad reviews it
received in the national press. The book was principally attacked for its
alleged indecency. After the 1950s, the chief attacks on the book would be
against its alleged racism or racial bigotry. For various reasons, the book
frequently has been banned from US schools and children's libraries, though it
was never really intended as a children's book. Nonetheless, the book has been
widely read ever since its first publication well over a century ago, an
exception to Twain's definition of a classic as "a book which people praise
and don't read."

Chapter
1 Summary

The narrator (later identified as Huckleberry Finn)
begins Chapter One by stating that the reader may know of him from another
book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by "Mr. Mark Twain," but it
"ain't t no matter" if you have not. According to Huck, Twain mostly
told the truth, with some "stretchers" thrown in, though
everyone{except Tom's Aunt Polly, the widow, and maybe Mary{lies once in a
while. The other book ended with Tom and Huckleberry finding the gold some
robbers had hidden in a cave. They got six thousand dollars apiece, which Judge
Thatcher put in trust, so that they each got a dollar a day from interest. The
Widow Douglas adopted and tried to "civilise" Huck. But Huck couldn't
stand it so he threw on his old rags and ran away. But he went back when Tom
Sawyer told him he could join his new band of robbers if he would return to the
Widow "and be respectable."

The Widow lamented over her failure with Huck, tried to
stufi him into cramped clothing, and before every meal had to
"grumble" over the food before they could eat it. She tried to teach
him about Moses, until Huck found out he was dead and lost interest. Meanwhile,
she would not let him smoke; typically, she disapproved of it because she had
never tried it, but approved of snufi since she used it herself. Her slim
sister who wears glasses, Miss Watson, tried to give him spelling lessons.

Meanwhile, Huck was going stir-crazy, made especially
restless by the sisters' constant reminders to improve his behavior. When Miss
Watson told him about the "bad place," Hell, he burst out that he
would like to go there, as a change of scenery. Secretly, Huck really does not
see the point in going to "the good place" and resolved then not to
bother trying to get there.

When
Huck asked, Miss Watson told him there was no chance Tom Sawyer would end up in
Heaven. Huck was glad "because I wanted him and me to be together."
One night, after Miss Watson's prayer session with him and the slaves, Huck
goes to bed feeling "so lonesome I wished I was dead." He gets
shivers hearing the sounds of nature through his window. Huck accidentally icks
a spider into a candle, and is frightened by the bad omen. Just after midnight,
Huck hears movement below the window, and a "me-yow" sound, that he
responds to with another "me-yow." Climbing out the window onto the
shed, Huck finds Tom Sawyer waiting for him.

Chapters
2-3 Summary

Huck and Tom tiptoe through the garden. Huck trips on a
root as he passes the kitchen. Jim, a "big" slave, hears him from
inside. Tom and Huck crouch down, trying to stay still. But Huck is struck by
an uncontrollable itch, as always happens when he is in a situation, like when
he's "with the quality," where it is bad to scratch. Jim says aloud
that he will stay put until he discovers the source of the sound, but after
several minutes falls asleep. Tom plays a trick on Jim{putting his hat on a
tree branch over his head{and takes candles from the kitchen, over Huck's
objections that they will risk getting caught. Later, Jim will say that some
witches ew him around the state and put the hat above his head as a calling
card. He expands the tale further, becoming a local celebrity among the slaves,
who enjoy witch stories. He wears around his neck the five-cent piece Tom left for
the candles, calling it a charm from the devil with the power to cure sickness.
Jim nearly becomes so stuck-up from his newfound celebrity that he is unfit to
be a servant.

Meanwhile, Tom and Huck meet up with a few other boys,
and take a boat to a large cave. There, Tom declares his new band of robbers,
"Tom Sawyer's Gang." All must sign in blood an oath vowing, among
other things, to kill the family of any member who reveals the gang's secrets.
The boys think it "a real beautiful oath." Tom admits he got part of
it from books. The boys nearly disqualify Huck, who has no family but a drunken
father who can never be found, until Huck offers Miss Watson. Tom says the gang
must capture and ransom people, though nobody knows what "ransom"
means.

Tom assumes it means to kill them. But anyway, it must be
done since all the books say so. When one boy cries to go home and threatens to
tell the group's secrets, Tom bribes him with five cents. They agree to meet
again someday, just not Sunday, which would be blasphemous. Huckleberry makes
it back into bed just before dawn.

Miss Watson tries to explain prayer to Huckleberry in
Chapter Three. Huckleberry gives up on it after not getting what he prays for.
Miss Watson calls him a fool, and explains prayer bestows spiritual gifts like
sel essness to help others. Huck cannot see any advantage in this, except for
the others one helps. So he resolves to forget it. Widow Douglas describes a
wonderful God, while Miss Watson's is terrible. Huck concludes there are two
Gods. He would like to belong to Widow Douglas's, if He would take him –
unlikely because of Huck's bad qualities.

Meanwhile, a rumor circulates that Huck's Pap, who has
not been seen in a year, is dead. A corpse was found in the river, thought to
be Pap because of its "ragged" appearance, though the face is
unrecognizable. At first Huck is relieved. His father had been a drunk who beat
him when he was sober, though Huck stayed hidden from him most of the time.
Soon, however, Huck doubts his father's death, and expects to see him again.

After
a month in Tom's gang, Huck quit along with the rest of the boys. There was no
point to it, without any robbery or killing, their activities being all
pretend. Once, Tom pretended a caravan of Arabs and Spaniards were going to
encamp nearby with hundreds of camels and elephants. It turned out to be a
Sunday school picnic. Tom explained it really was a caravan of Arabs and
Spaniards - only they were enchanted, like in Don Quixote. Huckleberry judged
Tom's stories of genies to be lies, after rubbing old lamps and rings with no
result.

Chapters
4-6 Summary

In Chapter Four, Huckleberry is gradually adjusting to
his new life, and even making small progress in school. One winter morning,
Huck notices boot tracks in the snow near the house. Within one heel print is
the shape of two nails crossed to ward off the devil. Huck runs to Judge
Thatcher, looking over his shoulder as he does. He sells his fortune to the
surprised Judge for a dollar. That night Huck goes to Jim, who has a magical
giant hairball from an ox's stomach. Huck tells Jim he found Pap's tracks in
the snow and wants to know what his father wants. Jim says the hairball needs
money to talk, and so Huck gives a counterfeit quarter. Jim puts his ear to the
hairball, and relates that Huck's father has two angels, one black and one
white, one bad, one good. It is uncertain which will win out. But Huck is safe
for now. He will have much happiness and much sorrow in his life, will marry a
poor and then a rich woman, and should stay clear of the water, since that is
where he will die. That night, Huck finds Pap waiting in his bedroom!

Pap's long, greasy, black hair hangs over his face. The
nearly fifty-year-old man's skin is a ghastly, disgusting white. Noticing
Huck's "starchy" clothes, Pap wonders aloud if he thinks himself
better than his father, promising to take him "down a peg." Pap
promises to teach Widow Douglas not to "meddle" and make a boy
"put on airs over his own father." Pap is outraged that Huck has
become the first person in his family to learn to read. He threatens Huck not
to go near the school again. He asks Huck if he is really rich, as he has
heard, and calls him a liar when he says he has no more money.

He takes the dollar Huck got from Judge Thatcher. He
leaves to get whiskey, and the next day, drunk, demands Huck's money from Judge
Thatcher. The Judge and Widow Douglas try to get custody of Huck, but give up
after the new judge in town refuses to separate a father from his son. Pap
lands in jail after a drunken spree. The new judge takes Pap into his home and
tries to reform him. Pap tearfully repents his ways but soon gets drunk again.
The new judge decides Pap cannot be reformed except with a shotgun.

Pap sues Judge Thatcher for Huck's fortune. He also
continues to threaten Huck about attending school, which Huck does partly to
spite his father. Pap goes on one drunken binge after another. One day he
kidnaps Huck and takes him deep into the woods, to a secluded cabin on the
Illinois shore. He locks Huck inside all day while he goes out. Huck enjoys
being away from civilization again, though he does not like his father's
beatings and his drinking. Eventually, Huck finds an old saw hidden away. He
slowly makes a hole in the wall while his father is away, resolved to escape
from both Pap and the Widow Douglas. But Pap returns as Huck is about to
finish. He complains about the "govment," saying Judge Thatcher has
delayed the trial to prevent Pap from getting Huck's wealth. He has heard his
chances are good, though he will probably lose the fight for custody of Huck.
He further rails against a biracial black visitor to the town. The visitor is
well dressed, university- educated, and not at all deferential. Pap is
disgusted that the visitor can vote in his home state, and that legally he
cannot be sold into slavery until he has been in the state six months. Later,
Pap wakes from a drunken sleep and chases after Huck with a knife, calling him
the "Angel of Death," stopping when he collapses in sleep. Huck holds
the ri e against his sleeping father and waits.

Chapters 7-10 Summary

Huck falls asleep, to be awakened by Pap, who is unaware
of the night's events. Pap sends Huck out to check for fish. Huck finds a canoe
drifting in the river and hides it in the woods. When Pap leaves for the day,
Huck finishes sawing his way out of the cabin. He puts food, cookware,
everything of value in the cabin, into the canoe. He covers up the hole in the
wall and then shoots a wild pig. He hacks down the cabin door, hacks the pig to
bleed onto the cabin's dirt oor, and makes other preparations so that it seems
robbers came and killed him. Huck goes to the canoe and waits for the moon to
rise, resolving to canoe to Jackson's Island, but falls asleep. When he wakes
he sees Pap row by. Once he has passed, Huck quietly sets out down river. He
pulls into Jackson's Island, careful not to be seen.

The next morning in Chapter Eight, a boat passes by with
Pap, Judge and Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer, his Aunt Polly, some of Huck's young
friends, and "plenty more" on board, all discussing the murder. They
shoot cannon over the water and oat loaves of bread with mercury inside, in
hopes of locating Huck's corpse. Huck, careful not to be seen, catches a loaf
and eats it.

Exploring the island, Huck is delighted to find Jim, who
at first thinks Huck is a ghost. Now Huck won't be lonely anymore. Huck is
shocked when Jim explains he ran away. Jim overheard Miss Watson discussing
selling him for eight hundred dollars, to a slave trader who would take him to
New Orleans. He left before she had a chance to decide. Jim displays a great
knowledge of superstition. He tells Huck how he once "speculated" ten
dollars in (live)stock, but lost most of it when the steer died. He then lost
five dollars in a failed slave start-up bank. He gave his last ten cents to a
slave, who gave it away after a preacher told him that charity repays itself
one-hundred-fold. It didn't. But Jim still has his hairy arms and chest, a
portent of future wealth. He also now owns all eight-hundred- dollars' worth of
himself.

In Chapter Nine, Jim and Huck take the canoe and
provisions into the large cavern in the middle of the island, to have a hiding
place in case of visitors, and to protect their things. Jim predicted it would
rain, and soon it downpours, with the two safely inside the cavern. The river
oods severely.

A washed-out houseboat oats down the river past the
island. Jim and Huck find a man's body inside, shot in the back. Jim prevents
Huck from looking at the face; it's too "ghastly." They make off with
some odds and ends. Huck has Jim hide in the bottom of the canoe so he won't be
seen. They make it back safely to the cave.

In Chapter Ten, Huck wonders about the dead man, though
Jim warns it's bad luck. Sure enough, bad luck comes: as a joke, Huck puts a
dead rattlesnake near Jim's sleeping place, and its mate comes and bites Jim.
Jim's leg swells, but after four days it goes down. A while later, Huck decides
to go ashore and to find out what's new. Jim agrees, but has Huck disguise himself
as a girl, with one of the dresses they took from the houseboat.

Huck practices his girl impersonation, then sets out for
the Illinois shore. In a formerly abandoned shack, he finds a woman who looks
forty, and also appears a newcomer. Huck is relieved she is a newcomer, since
she will not be able to recognize him.

Chapters 11-13 Summary

The woman eyes Huckleberry somewhat suspiciously as she
lets him in. Huck introduces himself as "Sarah Williams," from
Hookerville. The woman "clatters on," eventually getting to Huck's
murder. She reveals that Pap was suspected and nearly lynched, but people came
to suspect Jim, since he ran away the same day Huck was killed. There is a
three- hundred-dollar price on Jim's head. But soon, suspicions turned again to
Pap, after he blew money the judge gave him to find Jim on drink. But he left
town before he could be lynched, and now there is two hundred dollars on his
head. The woman has noticed smoke over on Jackson's Island, and, suspecting
that Jim might be hiding there, told her husband to look. He will go there
tonight with another man and a gun. The woman looks at Huck suspiciously and
asks his name.

He replies, "Mary Williams." When the woman
asks about the change, he covers himself, saying his full name is "Sarah
Mary Williams." She has him try to kill a rat by pitching a lump of lead
at it, and he nearly hits. Finally, she asks him to reveal his (male) identity,
saying she understands that he is a runaway apprentice and will not turn him
in. He says his name is George Peters, and he was indeed apprenticed to a mean
farmer. She lets him go after quizzing him on farm subjects, to make sure he's
telling the truth. She tells him to send for her, Mrs. Judith Loftus, if he has
trouble. Back at the island, Huck tells Jim they must shove off, and they
hurriedly pack their things and slowly ride out on a raft they had found.

Huck and Jim build a wigwam on the raft in Chapter
Twelve. They spend a number of days drifting down river, passing the great
lights of St. Louis on the fifth night. They "lived pretty high,"
buying, "borrowing", or hunting food as they need it. One night they
come upon a wreaked steamship. Over Jim's objections, Huck goes onto the wreck,
to loot it and have an "adventure," the way Tom Sawyer would. On the wreck,
Huck overhears two robbers threatening to kill a third so that he won't
"talk."

One of the two manages to convince the other to let their
victim be drowned with the wreck. They leave. Huck finds Jim and says they have
to cut the robbers' boat loose so they can't escape. Jim says that their own
raft has broken loose and oated away. Huck and Jim head for the robbers' boat
in Chapter Thirteen. The robbers put some booty in the boat, but leave to get
some more money off the man on the steamboat. Jim and Huck jump right into the
boat and head off as quietly as possible. A few hundred yards safely away, Huck
feels bad for the robbers left stranded on the wreck since, who knows, he may
end up a robber himself someday. They find their raft just before they stop for
Huck to go ashore for help. Ashore, Huck finds a ferry watchman, and tells him
his family is stranded on the steamboat wreck. The watchman tell him the wreck
is of the Walter Scott. Huck invents an elaborate story as to how his family
got on the wreck, including the niece of a local big shot among them, so that
the man is more than happy to take his ferry to help. Huck feels good about his
good deed, and thinks Widow Douglas would have been proud of him. Jim and Huck
turn into an island, and sink the robbers' boat before going to bed.

Chapters 14-16 Summary

Jim and Huck find a number of valuables among the
robbers' booty in Chapter Fourteen, mostly trinkets and cigars. Jim says he
doesn't enjoy Huck's "adventures," since they risk his getting
caught. Huck recognizes that Jim is intelligent, at least for what Huck thinks
of a black person. Huck astonishes Jim with his stories of kings. Jim had only
heard of King Solomon, whom he considers a fool for wanting to chop a baby in
half. Huck cannot convince Jim otherwise. Huck also tells Jim about the
"dolphin," son of the executed King Louis XVI of France, rumored to
be wandering America. Jim is incredulous when Huck explains that the French do
not speak English, but another language. Huck tries to argue the point with
Jim, but gives up in defeat.

Huck and Jim are nearing the Ohio River, their goal, in
Chapter Fifteen. But one densely foggy night, Huck, in the canoe, gets
separated from Jim and the raft. He tries to paddle back to it, but the fog is
so thick he loses all sense of direction. After a lonely time adrift, Huck is
reunited with Jim, who is asleep on the raft. Jim is thrilled to see Huck
alive. But Huck tries to trick Jim, pretending he dreamed their entire
separation. Jim tells Huck the story of his dream, making the fog and the
troubles he faced on the raft into an allegory of their journey to the free
states. But soon Jim notices all the debris, dirt and tree branches, that
collected on the raft while it was adrift.

He gets mad at Huck for making a fool of him after he had
worried about him so much. "It was fifteen minutes before I could work
myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger," but Huck apologizes, and
does not regret it. He feels bad about hurting Jim. Jim and Huck hope they
don't miss Cairo, the town at the mouth of the Ohio River, which runs into the
free states. Meanwhile, Huck's conscience troubles him deeply about helping Jim
escape from his "rightful owner," Miss Watson, especially after her
consideration for Huck. Jim can't stop talking about going to the free states,
especially about his plan to earn money to buy his wife and children's freedom,
or have some abolitionists kidnap them if their masters refuse. When they think
they see Cairo, Jim goes out on the canoe to check, secretly resolved to give
Jim up. But his heart softens when he hears Jim call out that he is his only
friend, the only one to keep a promise to him. Huck comes upon some men in a
boat who want to search his raft for escaped slaves. Huck pretends to be grateful,
saying no one else would help them. He leads them to believe his family, on
board the raft, has smallpox. The men back away, telling Huck to go further
downstream and lie about his family's condition to get help. They leave forty
dollars in gold out of pity. Huck feels bad for having done wrong by not giving
Jim up.

But he realizes that he would have felt just as bad if he
had given Jim up. Since good and bad seem to have the same results, Huck
resolves to disregard morality in the future and do what's
"handiest." Floating along, they pass several towns that are not
Cairo, and worry that they passed it in the fog. They stop for the night, and
resolve to take the canoe upriver, but in the morning it is gone{ more bad luck
from the rattlesnake. Later, a steamboat drives right into the raft, breaking
it apart. Jim and Huck dive off in time, but are separated. Huck makes it
ashore, but is caught by a pack of dogs.

Chapters 17-19 Summary

A man finds Huck in Chapter Seventeen and calls off the
dogs. Huck introduces himself as George Jackson. The man brings
"George" home, where he is eyed cautiously as a possible member of
the Sheperdson family. But they decide he is not. The lady of the house has
Buck, a boy about Huck's age (thirteen or fourteen) get Huck some dry clothes.
Buck says he would have killed a Shepardson if there had been any. Buck tells
Huck a riddle, though Huck does not understand the concept of riddles. Buck
says Huck must stay with him and they will have great fun. Huck invents an
elaborate story of how he was orphaned. The family, the Grangerfords, offer to
let him stay with them for as long as he likes. Huck innocently admires the
house and its (humorously tacky) finery. He similarly admires the work of a
deceased daughter, Emmeline, who created (unintentionally funny) maudlin
pictures and poems about people who died. "Nothing couldn't be
better" than life at the comfortable house.

Huck admires Colonel Grangerford, the master of the
house, and his supposed gentility. He is a warm- hearted man, treated with
great courtesy by everyone. He own a very large estate with over a hundred
slaves. The family's children, besides Buck, are Bob, the oldest, then Tom,
then Charlotte, aged twenty-five, and Sophia, twenty, all of them beautiful.
Three sons have been killed. One day, Buck tries to shoot Harney Shepardson,
but misses. Huck asks why he wanted to kill him. Buck explains the Grangerfords
are in a feud with a neighboring clan of families, the Shepardsons, who are as
grand as they are. No one can remember how the feud started, or name a purpose
for it, but in the last year two people have been killed, including a
fourteen-year-old Grangerford. Buck declares the Shepardson men all brave. The
two families attend church together, their ri es between their knees as the
minister preaches about brotherly love. After church one day, Sophia has Huck
retrieve a bible from the pews. She is delighted to find inside a note with the
words "two-thirty." Later, Huck's slave valet leads him deep into the
swamp, telling him he wants to show him some water-moccasins. There he finds
Jim! Jim had followed Huck to the shore the night they were wrecked, but did
not dare call out for fear of being caught. In the last few days he has
repaired the raft and bought supplies to replace what was lost. The next day
Huck learns that Sophie has run off with a Shepardson boy. In the woods, Huck
finds Buck and a nineteen-year-old Grangerford in a gun-fight with the
Shepardsons. The two are later killed. Deeply disturbed, Huck heads for Jim and
the raft, and the two shove off downstream. Huck notes, "You feel mighty
free and easy and comfortable on a raft."

Huck and Jim are lazily drifting down the river in
Chapter Nineteen. One day they come upon two men on shore eeing some trouble
and begging to be let onto the raft. Huck takes them a mile downstream to
safety. One man is about seventy, bald, with whiskers, the other, thirty. Both
men's clothes are badly tattered. The men do not know each other but are in
similar predicaments. The younger man had been selling a paste to remove tartar
from teeth that takes much of the enamel off with it. He ran out to avoid the
locals' ire. The other had run a temperance (sobriety) revival meeting, but had
to ee after word got out that he drank. The two men, both professional
scam-artists, decide to team up. The younger man declares himself an
impoverished English duke, and gets Huck and Jim to wait on him and treat him
like royalty. The old man then reveals his true identity as the Dauphin, Louis
XVI's long lost son. Huck and Jim then wait on him as they had the
"duke." Soon Huck realizes the two are liars, but to prevent
"quarrels," does not let on that he knows.

Chapters 20-22 Summary

The Duke and Dauphin ask whether Jim is a runaway, and so
Huckleberry concocts a tale of how he was orphaned, and he and Jim were forced
to travel at night since so many people stopped his boat to ask whether Jim was
a runaway. That night, the two royals take Jim and Huck's beds while they stand
watch against a storm. The next morning, the Duke gets the Dauphin to agree to
put on a performance of Shakespeare in the next town they cross. Everyone in
the town has left for a revival meeting in the woods. The meeting is a lively
afiair of several thousand people singing and shouting.

The Dauphin gets up and declares himself a former pirate,
now reformed by the meeting, who will return to the Indian Ocean as a
missionary. The crowd joyfully takes up a collection, netting the Dauphin
eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents, and many kisses from pretty young
women. Meanwhile, the Duke took over the deserted print offce and got nine and
a half dollars selling advertisements in the local newspaper. The Duke also
prints up a handbill offering a reward for Jim, so that they can travel freely
by day and tell whoever asks about Jim that the slave is their captive. The
Duke and Dauphin practice the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and the sword
fight from Richard III on the raft in Chapter Twenty-one.

The duke also works on his recitation of Hamlet's
"To be or not to be," soliloquy, which he has butchered, throwing in
lines from other parts of the play, and even Macbeth. But to Huck, the Duke
seems to possess a great talent. They visit a one-horse town in Arkansas where
lazy young men loiter in the streets, arguing over chewing tobacco. The Duke
posts handbills for the performance. Huck witnesses the shooting of a rowdy
drunk by a man, Sherburn, he insulted, in front of the victim's daughter. A
crowd gathers around the dying man and then goes off to lynch Sherburn.

The mob charges through the streets in Chapter
Twenty-two, sending women and children running away crying in its wake. They go
to Sherburn's house, knock down the front fence, but back away as the man meets
them on the roof of his front porch, ri e in hand. After a chilling silence,
Sherburn delivers a haughty speech on human nature, saying the average person,
and everyone in the mob, is a coward. Southern juries don't convict murderers
because they rightly fear being shot in the back, in the dark, by the man's
family. Mobs are the most pitiful of all, since no one in them is brave enough
in his own right to commit the act without the mass behind him. Sherburn
declares no one will lynch him: it is daylight and the Southern way is to wait
until dark and come wearing masks. The mob disperses. Huck then goes to the
circus, a "splendid" show, whose clown manages to come up with fantastic
one-liners in a remarkably short amount of time. A performer, pretending to be
a drunk, forces himself into the ring and tries to ride a horse, apparently
hanging on for dear life. The crowd roars its amusement, except for Huck, who
cannot bear to watch the poor man's danger. Only twelve people came to the
Duke's performance, and they laughed all the way through. So the Duke prints
another handbill, this time advertising a performance of "The King's
Cameleopard [Girafie] or The Royal Nonesuch." Bold letters across the
bottom read, "Women and Children Not Admitted."

Chapters 23-25 Summary

The new performance plays to a capacity audience. The
Dauphin, naked except for body paint and some "wild" accouterments,
has the audience howling with laughter. But the Duke and Dauphin are nearly
attacked when the show is ended after this brief performance. To avoid losing
face, the audience convinces the rest of the town the show is a smash, and a
capacity crowd follows the second night. As the Duke anticipated, the third
night's crowd consists of the two previous audiences coming to get their
revenge. The Duke and Huck make a getaway to the raft before the show starts.
From the three-night run, they took in four-hundred sixty-five dollars. Jim is
shocked that the royals are such "rapscallions." Huck explains that
history shows nobles to be rapscallions who constantly lie, steal, and
decapitate{describing in the process how Henry VIII started the Boston Tea
Party and wrote the Declaration of Independence. Huck doesn't see the point in
telling Jim the two are fakes; besides, they really do seem like the real
thing. Jim spends his night watches "moaning and mourning" for his
wife and two children, Johnny and Lizabeth. Though "It don't seem
natural," Huck concludes that Jim loves his family as much as whites love
theirs. Jim is torn apart when he hears a thud in the distance, because it
reminds him of the time he beat his Lizabeth for not doing what he said, not
realizing she had been made deaf-mute by her bout with scarlet fever.

In Chapter Twenty-four, Jim complains about having to
wait, frightened, in the boat, tied up (to avoid suspicion) while the others
are gone. So the Duke dresses Jim in a calico stage robe and blue face paint,
and posts a sign, "Sick Arab{but harmless when not out of his head."
Ashore and dressed up in their newly bought clothes, the Dauphin decides to
make a big entrance by steamboat into the next town. The Dauphin calls Huck
"Adolphus," and encounters a talkative young man who tells him about
the recently deceased Peter Wilks. Wilks sent for his two brothers from
Shefield, England: Harvey, whom he had not seen since he was five, and William,
who is deaf-mute. He has left all his property to his brothers, though it seems
uncertain whether they will ever arrive. The Dauphin gets the young traveler,
who is en route to Rio de Janeiro, to tell him everything about the Wilks. In
Wilks' town, they ask after Peter Wilks, pretending anguish when told of his
death. The Dauphin even makes strange hand signs to the Duke. "It was
enough to make a body ashamed of the human race," Huck thinks.

A crowd gathers before Wilks' house in Chapter
Twenty-five, as the Duke and Dauphin share a tearful meeting with the three
Wilks daughters. The entire town then joins in the "blubbering."
"I never see anything so disgusting," Huck thinks. Wilks' letter
(which he left instead of a will) leaves the house and three thousand dollars
to his daughters, and to his brothers, three thousand dollars, plus a tan-yard
and seven thousand dollars in real estate. The Duke and Dauphin privately count
the money, adding four-hundred fifteen dollars of their own money when the
stash comes up short of the letter's six-thousand, for appearances. They then
give it all to the Wilks women in a great show before a crowd of townspeople.
Doctor Abner Shackleford, an old friend of the deceased, interrupts to declare
them frauds, their accents ridiculously phony. He asks Mary Jane, the oldest
Wilks sister, to listen to him as a friend and turn the impostors out. In
reply, she hands the Dauphin the six thousand dollars to invest however he sees
fit.

Chapters 26-28 Summary

Huck has supper with Joanna, a Wilks sister he refers to
as "the Harelip" ("Cleft lip," a birth defect she possesses).
She cross-examines Huckleberry on his knowledge of England. He makes several
slips, forgetting he is supposedly from Shefield, and that the Dauphin is
supposed to be a Protestant minister.

Finally she asks whether he hasn't made the entire thing
up. Mary Jane and Susan interrupt and instruct Joanna to be courteous to their
guest. She graciously apologizes. Huck feels awful about letting such sweet
women be swindled. He resolves to get them their money. He goes to the Duke and
Dauphin's room to search for the money, but hides when they enter. The Duke
wants to leave that very night, but the Dauphin convinces him to stay until they
have stolen all the family's property. After they leave, Huckleberry takes the
gold to his sleeping cubby, and then sneaks out late at night.

Huck hides the sack of money in Wilks' coffn in Chapter
Twenty-seven, as Mary Jane, crying, enters the front room. Huck doesn't get
another opportunity to safely remove the money, and feels dejected that the
Duke and Dauphin will likely get it back. The funeral the next day is briefly
interrupted by the racket the dog is making down cellar. The undertaker slips out,
and after a "whack" is heard from downstairs, the undertaker returns,
whispering loudly to the preacher, "He had a rat!" Huck remarks how
the rightfully popular undertaker satisfied the people's natural curiosity.

Huck observes with horror as the undertaker seals the
coffn without looking inside. Now he will never know whether the money was
stolen from the coffn, or if he should write Mary Jane to dig up the coffn for
it.

Saying he will take the Wilks' family to England, the
Dauphin sells off the estate and the slaves. He sends a mother to New Orleans
and her two sons to Memphis. The scene at the grief-stricken family's
separation is heart-rending. But Huck comforts himself that they will be
reunited in a week or so when the Duke and Dauphin are exposed. When questioned
by the Duke and Dauphin, Huck blames the loss of the six thousand dollars on
the slaves they just sold, making the two regret the deed.

Huck finds Mary Jane crying in her bedroom in Chapter
Twenty-eight. All joy regarding the trip to England has been destroyed by the
thought of the slave mother and children never seeing each other again.
Touched, Huck unthinkingly blurts out that the family will be reunited in less
than two weeks. Mary Jane, overjoyed, asks Huck to explain. Huck is uneasy,
having little experience telling the truth while in a predicament. He tells
Mary Jane the truth, but asks her to wait at a relative's house until eleven
that night to give him time to get away, since the fate of another person hangs
in the balance. He tells her about the Royal Nonesuch incident, saying that
town will provide witnesses against the frauds. He instructs her to leave
without seeing her "uncles," since her innocent face would give away
their secret. He leaves her a note with the location of the money. She promises
to remember him forever, and pray for him. Though Huck will never see her
again, he will think of her often. Huck meets Susan and Joanna, and says Mary
Jane has gone to see a sick relative. Joanna cross-examines him about this, but
he manages to trick them into staying quiet about the whole thing{almost as
well as Tom Sawyer would have. But later, the auction is interrupted by a mob{
bringing the real Harvey and William Wilks!

Chapters 29-31 Summary

The real Harvey, in an authentic English accent, explains
the delay: their luggage has been misdirected, and his brother's arm has been
broken, making him unable to sign. The doctor again declares The Duke and
Dauphin frauds, and has the crowd bring both real and fraudulent Wilks brothers
to a tavern for examination. The frauds draw suspicion when they are unable to
produce the six thousand dollars. A lawyer friend of the deceased has the Duke,
Dauphin, and the real Harvey sign a piece of paper, then compares the writing
samples to letters he has from the real Harvey.

The frauds are disproved, but the Dauphin doesn't give
up. So the real Harvey declares he knows of a tattoo on his brother's chest,
asking the undertaker who dressed the body to back him up. But after the
Dauphin and Harvey say what they think the tattoo is, the undertaker declares
there wasn't one at all. The mob cries out for the blood of all four men, but
the lawyer instead sends them out to exhume the body and check for the tattoo
themselves. The mob carries the four and Huckleberry with them. The mob is
shocked to discover the gold in the coffn. In the excitement, Huck escapes.
Passing the Wilks's house, he notices a light in the upstairs window.

Huck steals a canoe and makes his way to the raft, and,
exhausted, shoves off. Huck dances for joy on the raft, but his heart sinks as
the Duke and Dauphin approach in a boat.

The Dauphin nearly strangles Huck in Chapter Thirty, out
of anger at his desertion. But the Duke stops him. They explain that they
escaped after the gold was found. The thieves start arguing about which one of
the two hid the gold in the coffn, to come back for later. But they make up and
go to sleep.

They take the raft downstream without stopping for
several days. The Duke and Dauphin try several scams on various towns, without
success. The two start to have secret discussions, worrying Jim and Huck, who
resolve to ditch them at the first opportunity. Finally, the Duke, Dauphin, and
Huck go ashore in one town to feel it out. The Duke and Dauphin get into a
fight in a tavern, and Huck takes the chance to escape. But back at the raft,
there is no sign of Jim. A boy explains that a man recognized Jim as a runaway
from a handbill they had found, offering two hundred dollars for him in New
Orleans{the handbill the Duke had printed earlier. But he said he had to leave
suddenly, and so sold his interest for forty dollars. Huck is disgusted by the
Dauphin's trick. He would like to write to Miss Watson to fetch Jim, so he
could at least be home and not in New Orleans. But he realizes she would simply
sell him downstream anyway, and he would get in trouble as well. The
predicament is surely God's punishment for his helping Jim. Huck tries to pray
for forgiveness, but cannot.

He writes the letter to Miss Watson giving Jim up. But
thinking of the time he spent with Jim, of his kind heart and their friendship,
Huck trembles. After a minute he decides, "All right then, I'll go to
hell!" He resolves to "steal Jim out of slavery." He goes in his
store-bought clothes to see Phelps, the man who is holding Jim. He finds the
Duke putting up posters for the Royal Nonesuch. Huck concocts a story about how
he wandered the town, but didn't find Jim or the raft. The Duke says he sold
Jim to a man forty miles away, and sends Huck on the three day trip to get him.

Chapters 32-35 Summary

Huck goes back to the Phelps's house in Chapter
Thirty-two. A bunch of hounds threaten him, but a slave woman calls them off.
The white mistress of the house, Sally, comes out, delighted to see the boy she
is certain is her nephew, Tom. Sally asks why he has been delayed the last
several days. He explains that a cylinder- head on the steamboat blew out. She
asks whether anyone got hurt, and he replies no, but it killed a black person.
The woman is relieved that no one was hurt. Huck is nervous about not having
any information on his identity, but when Sally's husband, Silas, returns, he
shouts out for joy that Tom Sawyer has finally arrived! Hearing a steamboat go
up the river, Huck heads out to the docks, supposedly to get his luggage, but
really to head off Tom should he arrive.

Huck interrupts Tom's wagon coming down the road in
Chapter Thirty-three. Tom is at first startled by the "ghost," but is
eventually convinced that Huck is alive. He even agrees to help Huck free Jim.
Huck is shocked by this: "Tom Sawyer fell, considerable, in my
estimation." Tom follows Huck to the Phelps's a half hour later. The
isolated family is thrilled to have another guest. Tom introduces himself as
William Thompson from Ohio, stopping on his way to visit his uncle nearby. But
Tom slips and kisses his aunt, who is outraged by such familiarity from a
stranger. Taken aback for a few moments, Tom recovers by saying he is another
relative, Sid Sawyer, and this has all been a joke. Later, walking through
town, Huck sees the Duke and Dauphin taken by a mob, tarred and feathered on a
rail. Jim had told on the pair. Tom feels bad for the two, and his ill feelings
toward them melt away. "Human beings can be awful cruel to one
another," Huck observes.

Huck concludes that a conscience is useless, since it
makes you feel bad for everyone. Tom agrees. Huck is impressed by Tom's
intelligence when he skillfully figures out that Jim is being held in a shed.
Huck's plan to free Jim is to steal the key and make off with Jim by night. Tom
belittles this plan for its simplicity and lack of showmanship. Tom's plan is
fifteen times better than Huck's for its style{it might even get all three
killed. Meanwhile, Huck is incredulous that respectable Tom is going to
sacrifice his reputation by helping a slave escape.

Huck and Tom get Jim's keeper, a superstitious slave, to
let them see him. When Jim cries out for joy, Tom tricks Jim's keeper into
thinking the cry a trick some witches had played on him. Tom and Huck promise
to dig Jim out.

Tom is upset in Chapter Thirty-five. Innocent uncle
Phelps has taken so few precautions to guard Jim, they have to invent all the
obstacles to his rescue. Tom says they must saw Jim's chain off instead of just
lifting it off the bedstead, since that's how it's done in all the books.
Similarly, Jim requires a rope ladder, a moat, and a shirt on which to keep a
journal, presumably in his own blood. Sawing his leg off to escape would also
be a nice touch. But since they're pressed for time, they will dig Jim out with
case-knives (large kitchen knives).

Chapters 36-39 Summary

Out late at night, Huck and Tom give up digging with the
case-knives after much fruitless efiort. They use pick-axes instead, but agree
to "let on"{pretend{that they are using case-knives. The next day,
Tom and Huck gather candlesticks, candles, spoons, and a tin plate. Jim can
etch a declaration of his captivity on the tin plate using the other objects,
then throw it out the window to be read by the world, like in the novels. That
night, the two boys dig their way to Jim, who is delighted to see them. He
tells them that Sally and Silas have been to visit and pray with him. He
doesn't understand the boys' scheme but agrees to go along. Tom thinks the
whole thing enormously fun and "intellectural." He tricks Jim's
keeper, Nat, into bringing Jim a "witch pie" to help ward off the
witches that have haunted Nat.

The missing shirt, candles, sheets, and other articles
Huck and Tom stole to give Jim get Aunt Sally mad at everyone but the two boys
in Chapter Thirty-seven. To make up, Huck and Tom secretly plug up the holes of
the rats that have supposedly stolen everything, confounding Uncle Silas when
he goes to do the job. By removing and then replacing sheets and spoons, the
two boys so confuse Sally that she loses track of how many she has. It takes a
great deal of trouble to put the rope ladder (made of sheets) in the witch's
pie, but at last it is finished and they give it to Jim. Tom insists Jim
scratch an inscription on the wall of the shed, with his coat of arms, the way
the books say. Making the pens from the spoons and candlestick is a great deal
of trouble, but they manage. Tom creates an unintentionally humorous coat of
arms and set of mournful declarations for Jim to inscribe on the wall. When Tom
disapproves of writing on a wooden, rather than a stone wall, they go steal a
millstone. Tom then tries to get Jim to take a rattlesnake or rat into the
shack to tame, and to grow a ower to water with his tears. Jim protests against
the ridiculously unnecessary amount of trouble Tom wants to create. Tom replies
that these are opportunities for greatness.

Huck and Tom capture rats and snakes in Chapter
Thirty-nine, accidentally infesting the Phelps house with them. Aunt Sally
becomes wildly upset when the snakes start to fall from the rafters onto her or
her bed. Tom explains that that's just how women are. Jim, meanwhile, hardly
has room to move with all the wildlife in his shed. Uncle Silas decides it is
time to sell Jim, and starts sending out advertisements. So Tom writes letters,
signed an "unknown friend," to the Phelps warning of trouble. The
family is terrified. Tom finishes with a longer letter pretending to be from a
member of a band of desperate gangsters out to steal Jim. The author has found
religion and so is warning them to block the plan.

Chapters 40-43 Summary

Fifteen uneasy local men with guns are in the Phelps's
front room. Huck goes to the shed to warn Tom and Jim. Tom is excited to hear
about the fifteen armed men. A group of men rush into the shed. In the darkness
Tom, Huck, and Jim escape through the hole. Tom makes a noise going over the
fence, attracting the attention of the men, who shoot at them as they run. But
they make it to the hidden raft, and set off downstream, delighted with their
success{especially Tom, who has a bullet in the leg as a souvenir.

Huck and Jim are taken aback by Tom's wound. Jim says
they should get a doctor{what Tom would do if the situation were reversed.
Jim's reaction confirms Huck's belief that Jim is "white inside."

Huck finds a doctor in Chapter Forty-one and sends him to
Tom. The next morning, Huck runs into Silas, who takes him home. The place is
filled with farmers and their wives, all discussing the weird contents of Jim's
shed, and the hole. They conclude a band of (probably black) robbers of amazing
skill must have tricked not only the Phelps and their friends, but the original
band of desperadoes. Sally will not let Huck out to find Tom, since she is so
sad to have lost Tom and does not want to risk another boy. Huckleberry is
touched by her concern and vows never to hurt her again.

Silas has been unable to find Tom in Chapter Forty- two.
They have gotten a letter from Tom's Aunt Polly, Sally's sister. But Sally
casts it aside when she sees Tom, semi-conscious, brought in on a mattress,
accompanied by a crowd including Jim, in chains, and the doctor. Some of the
local men would like to hang Jim, but are unwilling to risk having to
compensate Jim's master. So they treat Jim roughly, and chain him hand and foot
inside the shed. The doctor intervenes, saying Jim isn't bad, since he
sacrificed his freedom to help nurse Tom. Sally, meanwhile, is at Tom's
bedside, glad that his condition has improved. Tom wakes and gleefully details
how they set Jim free. He is horrified to learn that Jim is now in chains. He
explains that Jim was freed in Miss Watson's will when she died two months ago.

She regretted ever having considered selling Jim down the
river. Just then, Aunt Polly walks into the room. She came after Sally
mysteriously wrote her that Sid Sawyer was staying with her. After a tearful
reunion with Sally, she identifies Tom and Huckleberry, yelling at both boys
for their misadventures. When Huckleberry asks Tom in the last chapter what he
planned to do once he had freed the already- freed Jim, Tom replies that he was
going to repay Jim for his troubles and send him back a hero. When Aunt Polly
and the Phelps hear how Jim helped the doctor, they treat him much better.

Tom gives Jim forty dollars for his troubles. Jim
declares that the omen of his hairy chest has come true. Tom makes a full
recovery, and has the bullet inserted into a watch he wears around his neck. He
and Huck would like to go on another adventure, to Indian Territory
(present-day Oklahoma). But Huck worries Pap has taken all his money. Jim tells
him that couldn't have happened: the dead body they found way back on the
houseboat, that Jim would not let Huck see, belonged to Pap. Huck has nothing
more to write about. He is "rotten glad," since writing a book turned
out to be quite a task. He does not plan any future writings. Instead, he hopes
to make the trip out to Indian Territory, since Aunt Sally is already trying to
"sivilize" him, and he's had enough of that.

ALL THE KING’S
MEN

Robert Penn Warren was one of the twentieth century's outstanding
men of letters. He found great success as a novelist, a poet, a critic, and a
scholar, and enjoyed a career showered with acclaim. He won two Pulitzer
Prizes, was Poet Laureate of the United States, and was presented with a
Congressional Medal of Fr edom. He founded the Southern Review and was an
important contributor to the New Criticism of 1930s and '40s.

Born in 1905, Warren showed his
exceptional intelligence from an early age; he attended college at Vanderbilt
University, where he befriended some of the most important contemporary figures
in Southern literature, including Allan Tate and John Crowe Ransom, and where
he won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England. During a
stay in Italy, Warren wrote a verse drama called Proud Flesh,which dealt with
themes of political power and moral corruption. As a professor at Louisiana
State University, Warren had observed the rise of Louisiana political boss Huey
Long, who embodied, in many ways, the ideas Warren tried to work into Proud
Flesh. Unsatisfied with the result, Warren began to rework his elaborate drama
into a novel, set in the contemporary South, and based in part on the person of
Huey Long.

The result was All the King'sMen,
Warren's best and most acclaimed book. First published in 1946, Allthe King's
Men is one of the best literary documents dealing with the American South
during the Great Depression. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize, and was adapted
into a movie that won an Academy Award in 1949.

All the King's Men focuses on the
lives of Willie Stark, an upstart farm boy who rises through sheer force of
will to become Governor of an unnamed Southern state during the 1930s, and Jack
Burden, the novel's narrator, a cynical scion of the state's political
aristocracy who uses his abilities as a historical researcher to help Willie
blackmail and control his enemies.

The novel deals with the large
question of the responsibility individuals bear for their actions within the turmoil
of history, and it is perhaps appropriate that the impetus of the novel's story
comes partly from real historical occurrences.

Jack Burden is entirely a creation of
Robert Penn Warren, but there are a number of important parallels between
Willie Stark and Huey Long, who served Louisiana as both Governor and Senator
from 1928 until his death in 1935.

Like Huey Long, Willie Stark is an
uneducated farm boy who passed the state bar exam; like Huey Long, he rises to
political power in his state by instituting liberal reform designed to help the
state's poor farmers. And like Huey Long, Willie is assassinated at the peak of
his power by a doctor Dr. Adam Stanton in Willie's case, Dr. Carl A. Weiss in
Long's. (Unlike Willie, however, Long was assassinated after becoming a
Senator, and was in fact in the middle of challenging Franklin D. Roosevelt for
the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.)

Characters

Jack Burden -- Willie Stark's
political right-hand man, the narrator of the novel and in many ways its protagonist.
Jack comes from a prominent family (the town he grew up in, Burden's Landing,
was named for his ancestors), and knows many of the most important people in
the state.

Despite his aristocratic background,
Jack allies himself with the liberal, amoral Governor Stark, to the displeasure
of his family and friends. He uses his considerable skills as a researcher to
uncover the secrets of Willie's political enemies. Jack was once married to
Lois Seager, but has left her by the time of the novel. Jack's main
characteristics are his intelligence and his curious lack of ambition; he seems
to have no agency of his own, and for the most part he is content to take his
direction from Willie. Jack is also continually troubled by the question of motive
and responsibility in history: he quit working on his PhD thesis in history
when he decided he could not comprehend Cass Mastern's motives. He develops the
Great Twitch theory to convince himself that no one can be held responsible for
anything that happens. During the course of the novel, however, Jack rejects
the Great Twitch theory and accepts the idea of responsibility.

Willie Stark -- Jack Burden's boss, who
rises from poverty to become the governor of his state and its most powerful
political figure. Willie takes control of the state through a combination of
political reform (he institutes sweeping liberal measures designed to tax the
rich and ease the burden on the state's many poor farmers) and underhanded
guile (he blackmails and bullies his enemies into submission). While Jack is
intelligent and inactive, Willie is essentially all motive power and direction.
The extent of his moral philosophy is his belief that everyone and everything
is bad, and that moral action involves making goodness out of the badness.

Willie is married to Lucy Stark, with
whom he has a son, Tom. But his voracious sexual appetite leads him into a
number of afiairs, including one with Sadie Burke and one with Anne Stanton.
Willie is murdered by Adam Stanton toward the end of the novel.

Anne Stanton -- Jack Burden's first
love, Adam Stanton's sister, and, for a time, Willie Stark's mistress. The
daughter of Governor Stanton, Anne is raised to believe in a strict moral code,
a belief which is threatened and nearly shattered when Jack shows her proof of
her father's wrongdoing.

Adam Stanton -- A brilliant surgeon and
Jack Burden's closest childhood friend. Anne Stanton's brother. Jack persuades
Adam to put aside his moral reservations about Willie and become director of
the new hospital Willie is building, and Adam later cares for Tom Stark after
his injury. But two revelations combine to shatter Adam's worldview: he learns
that his father illegally protected Judge Irwin after he took a bribe, and he
learns that his sister has become Willie Stark's lover. Driven mad with the
knowledge, Adam assassinates Willie in the lobby of the Capitol towards the end
of the novel.

Judge Montague Irwin -- A prominent citizen of
Burden's Landing and a former state Attorney General; also a friend to the
Scholarly Attorney and a father figure to Jack. When Judge Irwin supports one
of Willie's political enemies in a Senate election, Willie orders Jack to dig
up some information on the judge. Jack discovers that his old friend accepted a
bribe from the American Electric Power Company in 1913 to save his plantation.
(In return for the money, the judge dismissed a case against the Southern Belle
Fuel Company, a sister corporation to American Electric.) When he confronts the
judge with this information, the judge commits suicide; when Jack learns of the
suicide from his mother, he also learns that Judge Irwin was his real father.

Sadie Burke -- Willie Stark's
secretary, and also his mistress. Sadie has been with Willie from the beginning,
and believes that she made him what he is. Despite the fact that he is a
married man, she becomes extremely jealous of his relationships with other
women, and they often have long, passionate fights. Sadie is tough, cynical,
and extremely vulnerable; when Willie announces that he is leaving her to go
back to Lucy, she tells Tiny Dufiy in a fit of rage that Willie is sleeping
with Anne Stanton. Tiny tells Adam Stanton, who assassinates Willie. Believing
herself to be responsible for Willie's death, Sadie checks into a sanitarium.
.

Tiny Dufiy -- Lieutenant-Governor of the state
when Willie is assassinated. Fat, obsequious, and untrustworthy, Tiny swallows
Willie's abuse and con- tempt for years, but finally tells Adam Stanton that
Willie is sleeping with Anne. When Adam murders Willie, Tiny becomes Governor.
Sugar-Boy O'Sheean -- Willie Stark's driver, and also his bodyguard--

Sugar-Boy
is a crack shot with a .38 special and a brilliant driver. A stuttering
Irishman, Sugar-Boy follows Willie blindly.

Lucy Stark -- Willie's long-sufiering wife, who
is constantly disappointed by her husband's failure to live up to her moral
standards. Lucy eventually leaves Willie to live at her sister's poultry farm.
They are in the process of reconciling when Willie is murdered.

Tom Stark -- Willie's arrogant, hedonistic son,
a football star for the state university. Tom lives a life of drunkenness and
promiscuity before he breaks his neck in a football accident. Permanently
paralyzed, he dies of pneumonia shortly thereafter. Tom is accused of
impregnating Sibyl Frey, whose child is adopted by Lucy at the end of the
novel.

Jack's mother -- A beautiful,
"famished-cheeked" woman from Arkansas, Jack's mother is brought back
to Burden's Landing by the Scholarly Attorney, but falls in love with Judge
Irwin and begins an afiair with him; Jack is a product of that afiair. After
the Scholarly Attorney leaves her, she marries a succession of men (the Tycoon,
the Count, the Young Executive). Jack's realization that she is capable of love--and
that she really loved Judge Irwin-- helps him put aside his cynicism at the end
of the novel.

Sam MacMurfee -- Willie's main political
enemy within the state's Democratic Party, and governor before Willie. After
Willie crushes him in the gubernatorial election, MacMurfee continues to
control the Fourth District, from which he plots ways to claw his way back into
power.

Ellis Burden -- The man whom Jack
believes to be his father for most of the book, before learning his real father
is Judge Irwin. After discovering his wife's afiair with the judge, the
"Scholarly Attorney" (as Jack characterizes him) leaves her. He moves
to the state capital where he attempts to conduct a Christian ministry for the
poor and the unfortunate.

Theodore Murrell -- The "Young
Executive," as Jack characterizes him; Jack's mother's husband for most of
the novel.

Governor Joel Stanton -- Adam and Anne's father,
governor of the state when Judge Irwin was Attorney General. Protects the judge
after he takes the bribe to save his plantation.

Joe Harrison -- Governor of the state
who sets Willie up as a dummy candidate to split the MacMurfee vote, and
thereby enables Willie's entrance onto the political stage. When Willie learns
how Harrison has treated him, he withdraws from the race and campaigns for
MacMurfee, who wins the election. By the time Willie crushes MacMurfee in the
next election, Harrison's days of political clout are over.

Mortimer L. Littlepaugh -- The man who preceded
Judge Irwin as counsel for the American Electric Power Company in the early
1900s. When Judge Irwin took Littlepaugh's job as part of the bribe,
Littlepaugh confronted Governor Stanton about the judge's illegal activity.
When the governor protected the judge, Littlepaugh committed suicide.

Miss Lily Mae Littlepaugh -- Mortimer Littlepaugh's
sister, an old spiritual medium who sells her brother's suicide note to Jack,
giving him the proof he needs about Judge Irwin and the bribe.

Gummy Larson -- MacMurfee's most
powerful supporter, a wealthy businessman. Willie is forced to give Larson the
building contract to the hospital so that Larson will call MacMurfee off about
the Sibyl Frey controversy, and thereby preserve Willie's chance to go to the
Senate.

Lois Seager -- Jack's sexy first wife,
whom he leaves when he begins to

perceive
her as a person rather than simply as a machine for gratifying his

desires.

Byram B. White -- The State Auditor during
Willie's first term as governor. His acceptance of graft money propels a
scandal that eventually leads to an impeachment attempt against Willie. Willie
protects White and blackmails his enemies into submission, a decision which
leads to his estrangement from Lucy and the resignation of Hugh Miller.

Sibyl Frey -- A young girl who accuses Tom Stark
of having gotten her pregnant; Tom alleges that Sibyl has slept with so many
men, she could not possibly know he was the father of her child. Marvin Frey --
Sibyl Frey's father, who threatens Willie with a paternity suit. (He is being
used by MacMurfee.)

Cass Mastern -- The brother of Jack's
grandmother. During the middle of the nineteenth century, Cass had an afiair
with Annabelle Trice, the wife of his friend Duncan. After Duncan's suicide,
Annabelle sold a slave, Phebe; Cass tried to track down Phebe, but failed. He
became an abolitionist, but fought in the Confederate Army during the Civil
War, during which he was killed. Jack tries to use his papers as the basis of
his Ph.D. dissertation, but walked away from the project when he was unable to
understand Cass Mastern's motivations.

Gilbert Mastern -- Cass Mastern's wealthy
brother.

Annabelle Trice -- Cass Mastern's lover,
the wife of Duncan Trice. When the slave Phebe brings her Duncan's wedding ring
following his suicide, Annabelle says that she cannot bear the way Phebe looked
at her, and sells her.

Duncan Trice -- Cass Mastern's
hedonistic friend in Lexington, Annabelle Trice's husband. When he learns that
Cass has had an afiair with Annabelle, Duncan takes off his wedding ring and
shoots himself.

Phebe -- The slave who brings
Annabelle Trice her husband's wedding ring following his suicide. As a result,
Annabelle sells her.

Summary

All
the King's Men is the story of the rise and fall of a political titan in the
Deep South during the 1930s. Willie Stark rises from hardscrabble poverty to
become governor of his state and its most powerful political figure; he blackmails
and bullies his enemies into submission, and institutes a radical series of
liberal reforms designed to tax the rich and ease the burden of the state's
poor farmers. He is beset with enemies--most notably Sam MacMurfee, a defeated
former governor who constantly searches for ways to undermine Willie's
power--and surrounded by a rough mix of political allies and hired thugs, from
the bodyguard Sugar-Boy O'Sheean to the fat, obsequious Tiny Dufiy.

All the King's Men is also the story
of Jack Burden, the scion of one of the state's aristocratic dynasties, who
turns his back on his genteel upbringing and becomes Willie Stark's right-hand
man. Jack uses his considerable talents as a historical researcher to dig up
the unpleasant secrets of Willie's enemies, which are then used for purposes of
blackmail. Cynical and lacking in ambition, Jack has walked away from many of
his past interests--he left his dissertation in American History unfinished,
and never managed to marry his first love, Anne Stanton, the daughter of a
former governor of the state.

When Willie asks Jack to look for
skeletons in the closet of Judge Irwin, a father figure from Jack's childhood,
Jack is forced to confront his ideas concerning consequence, responsibility,
and motivation. He discovers that Judge Irwin accepted a bribe, and that
Governor Stanton covered it up; the resulting blackmail attempt leads to Judge
Irwin's suicide. It also leads to Adam Stanton's decision to accept the
position of director of the new hospital Willie is building, and leads Anne to
begin an afiair with Willie.

When Adam learns of the afiair, he
murders Willie in a rage, and Jack leaves politics forever. Willie's death and
the circumstances in which it occurs force Jack to rethink his desperate belief
that no individual can ever be responsible for the consequences of any action
within the chaos and tumult of history and time. Jack marries Anne Stanton and
begins working on a book about Cass Mastern, the man whose papers he had once
tried to use as the source for his failed dissertation in American History.

Chapter 1

Summary

Jack
Burden describes driving down Highway 58 with his boss, Governor Willie Stark,
in the Boss's big black Cadillac--Sugar-Boy is driving, and in the car with
them were the Boss's wife Lucy, son Tommy, and the Lieutenant Governor, Tiny
Dufiy. Sugar-Boy drives them into Mason City, where Willie is going to pose for
a press photo with his father, who lives on a nearby farm. The Cadillac is
followed by a car full of press men and photographers, overseen by Willie's
secretary, Sadie Burke. It is summer, 1936, and scorching hot outside.

In Mason City, Willie immediately
attracts an adoring throng of people. The group goes inside the drugstore,
where Doc pours them glasses of Coke. The crowd pressures Willie for a speech,
but he declines, saying he's just come to see his "pappy". He then
delivers an efiective impromptu speech on the theme of not delivering a speech,
saying he doesn't have to stump for votes on his day off. The crowd applauds,
and the group drives out to the Stark farm.

On the way, Jack remembers his first
meeting with Willie, in 1922, when Jack was a reporter for the Chronicle and
Willie was only the County Treasurer of Mason County. Jack had gone to the back
room of Slade's pool hall to get some information from deputy-sherifi Alex
Michel and Tiny Dufiy (then the Tax Assessor, and an ally of then-Governor
Harrison). While he was there, Dufiy tried to bully Willie into drinking a
beer, which Willie claimed not to want, instead ordering an orange soda. Dufiy
ordered Slade to bring Willie a beer, and Slade said that he only served
alcohol to men who wanted to drink it. He brought Willie the orange soda. When
Prohibition was repealed after Willie's rise to power, Slade was one of the
first men to get a liquor license; he got a lease at an exceptional location,
and was now a rich man.

At the farm, Willie and Lucy pose for
a picture with spindly Old Man Stark and his dog. Then the photographers have
Willie pose for a picture in his old bedroom, which still contains all his
schoolbooks. Toward sunset, Sugar-Boy is out shooting cans with his .38
special, and Jack goes outside for a drink from his ask and a look at the sunset.
As he leans against the fence, Willie approaches him and asks for a drink. Then
Sadie Burke runs up to them with a piece of news, which she reveals only after
Willie stops teasing her: Judge Irwin has just endorsed Callahan, a Senate
candidate running against Willie's man, Masters.

After
dinner at the Stark farm, Willie announces that he, Jack, and Sugar-Boy will be
going for a drive. He orders Sugar-Boy to drive the Cadillac to Burden's
Landing, more than a hundred miles away. Jack grew up in Burden's Landing,
which was named for his ancestors, and he complains about the long drive this
late at night. As they approach Jack's old house, he thinks about his mother
lying inside with Theodore Murrell--not Jack's first stepfather. And he thinks
about Anne and Adam Stanton, who lived nearby and used to play with him as a
child. He also thinks about Judge Irwin, who lives near the Stanton and Burden
places, and who was a father figure to Jack after his own father left. Jack
tells Willie that Judge Irwin won't scare easily, and inwardly hopes that what
he says is true.

The
three men arrive at Judge Irwin's, where Willie speaks insouciantly and
insolently to the gentlemanly old judge. Judge Irwin insults Jack for being
employed by such a man, and tells Willie that he endorsed Callahan because of
some damning information he had been given about Masters. Willie says that it
would be possible to find dirt on anyone, and advises the judge to retract his
endorsement, lest some dirt should turn up on him. He heavily implies that
Judge Irwin would lose his position as a judge. Judge Irwin angrily throws the
men out of his house, and on the drive back to Mason City, Willie orders Jack
to find some dirt on the judge, and to "make it stick."

Writing
in 1939, three years after that scene, Jack re ects that Masters--who did get
elected to the Senate--is now dead, and Adam Stanton is dead, and Judge Irwin
is dead, and Willie himself is dead: Willie, who told Jack to find some dirt on
Judge Irwin and make it stick. And Jack remembers: "Little Jackie made it
stick, all right."

Chapter
2 Summary

Jack
Burden remembers the years during which Willie Stark rose to power. While
Willie was Mason County Treasurer, he became embroiled in a controversy over
the building contract for the new school. The head of the city council awarded
the contract to the business partner of one of his relatives, no doubt
receiving a healthy kickback for doing so. The political machine attempted to
run this contract over Willie, but Willie insisted that the contract be awarded
to the lowest bidder. The local big-shots responded by spreading the story that
the lowest bidder would import black labor to construct the building, and,
Mason County being redneck country, the people sided against Willie, who was trounced
in the next election. Jack Burden covered all this in the Chronicle, which
sided with Willie.

After
he was beaten out of offce, Willie worked on his father's farm, hit the law
books at night, and eventually passed the state bar exam. He set up his own law
practice. Then one day during a fire drill at the new school, a fire escape
collapsed due to faulty construction and three students died. At the funeral,
one of the bereaved fathers stood by Willie and cried aloud that he had been
punished for voting against an honest man. After that, Willie was a local hero.
During the next gubernatorial election, in which Harrison ran against
MacMurfee, the vote was pretty evenly divided between city-dwellers, who
supported Harrison, and country folk, who supported MacMurfee. The Harrison
camp decided to split the MacMurfee vote by secretly setting up another
candidate who could draw some of MacMurfee's support in the country. They
settled on Willie. One day Harrison's man, Tiny Dufiy, visited Willie in Mason
City and convinced him that he was God's choice to run for governor.

Willie
wanted the offce desperately, and so he believed him.Willie stumped the state,
and Jack Burden covered his campaign for the Chronicle. Willie was a terrible
candidate. His speeches were full of facts and figures; he never stirred the
emotions of the crowd. Eventually Sadie Burke, who was with the Harrison camp
and followed Willie's campaign, revealed to Willie that he had been set up.
Enraged, Willie gulped down a whole bottle of whiskey and passed out in Jack
Burden's room. The next day, he struggled to make it to his campaign barbecue
in the city of Upton. To help Willie overcome his hangover, Jack had to fill
him full of whiskey again. At the barbecue, the furious, drunken Willie gave the
crowd a fire-and-brimstone speech in which he declared that he had been set up,
that he was just a hick like everyone else in the crowd, and that he was
withdrawing from the race to support MacMurfee. But if MacMurfee didn't deliver
for the little people, Willie admonished the hearers to nail him to the door.
Willie said that if they passed him the hammer he'd nail him to the door
himself. Tiny Dufiy tried to stop the speech, but fell off the stage.

Willie
stumped for MacMurfee, who won the election. Afterwards, Willie returned to his
law practice, at which he made a great deal of money and won some high- proffle
cases. Jack didn't see Willie again until the next election, when the political
battlefield had changed: Willie now owned the Democratic Party. Jack quit his
job at the Chronicle because the paper was forcing him to support MacMurfee in
his column, and slumped into a depression. He spent all his time sleeping and
piddling around--he called the period "the Great Sleep," and said it
had happened twice before, once just before he walked away from his doctoral
dissertation in American History, and once after Lois divorced him. During the
Great Sleep Jack occasionally visited Adam Stanton, took Anne Stanton to dinner
a few times, and visited his father, who now spent all his time handing out
religious iers. At some point during this time Willie was elected governor.

One
morning Jack received a phone call from Sadie Burke, saying that the Boss
wanted to see him the next morning at ten. Jack asked who the Boss was, and she
replied, "Willie Stark, Governor Stark, or don't you read the papers?"
Jack went to see Willie, who offered him a job for $3,600 a year. Jack asked
Willie who he would be working for--Willie or the state.

Willie
said he would be working for him, not the state. Jack wondered how Willie could
afiord to pay him $3,600 a year when the governorship only paid $5,000. But
then he remembered the money Willie had made as a lawyer. He accepted the job,
and the next night he went to have dinner at the Governor's mansion.

Chapter
3 Summary

Jack
Burden tells about going home to Burden's Landing to visit his mother, some
time in 1933. His mother disapproves of his working for Willie, and Theodore
Murrell (his mother's husband, whom Jack thinks of as "the Young
Executive") irritates him with his questions about politics. Jack
remembers being happy in the family's mansion until he was six years old, when
his father ("the Scholarly Attorney") left home to distribute
religious pamphlets, and Jack's mother told him he had gone because he didn't
love her anymore. She then married a succession of men: the Tycoon, the Count,
and finally the Young Executive. Jack remembers picnicking with Adam and Anne
Stanton, and swimming with Anne. He remembers arguing with his mother in 1915
over his decision to go to the State University instead of to Harvard.

That
night in 1933, Jack, his mother, and the Young Executive go to Judge Irwin's
for a dinner party; the assembled aristocrats talk politics, and are staunchly
opposed to Willie Stark's liberal reforms. Jack is forced to entertain the
pretty young Miss Dumonde, who irritates him. When he drives back to Willie's
hotel, he kisses Sadie Burke on the forehead, simply because she isn't named
Dumonde. On the drive back, Jack thinks about his parents in their youth, when
his father brought his mother to Burden's Landing from her home in Arkansas. In
Willie's room, hell is breaking loose: MacMurfee's men in the Legislature are
mounting an impeachment attempt on Byram B. White, the state auditor, who has
been involved in a graft scandal. Willie humiliates and insults White, but
decides to protect him. This decision causes Hugh Miller, Willie's Attorney
General, to resign from offce, and nearly provokes Lucy into leaving Willie. Willie
orders Jack to dig up dirt on MacMurfee's men in the Legislature, and he begins
frenetically stumping the state, giving speeches during the day and
intimidating and blackmailing MacMurfee's men at night. Stunned by his
aggressive activity, MacMurfee's men attempt to seize the offensive by
impeaching Willie himself. But the blackmailing efiorts work, and the
impeachment is called off before the vote can be taken. Still, the day of the
impeachment, a huge crowd descends on the capital in support of Willie. Willie
tells Jack that after the impeachment he is going to build a massive,
state-of-the-art hospital; Willie wins his next election by a landslide.

During
all this time, Jack re ects on Willie's sexual conquests--he has begun a
long-term afiair with Sadie Burke, who is fiercely jealous of his other
mistresses, but Lucy seems to know nothing about it. Lucy does eventually leave
Willie, spending time in St. Augustine and then at her sister's poultry farm,
but they keep up the appearance of marriage. Jack speculates that Lucy does not
sever all her ties with Willie for Tommy's sake, though teen-aged Tommy has
become an arrogant football star with a string of sexual exploits of his own.

Chapter
4 Summary

Returning
to the night in 1936 when he, Willie, and Sugar-Boy drove away from Judge
Irwin's house, Jack re ects that his inquiry into Judge Irwin's past was really
his second major historical study. He recalls his first, as a graduate student
at the State University, studying for his Ph.D. in American History. Jack lived
in a slovenly apartment with a pair of slovenly roommates, and blew all the
money his mother sent him on drinking binges. He was writing his dissertation
on the papers of Cass Mastern, his father's uncle.

As
a student at Translyvania College in the 1850s, Cass Mastern had had an afiair
with Annabelle Trice, the wife of his friend Duncan Trice. When Duncan
discovered the afiair, he took off his wedding ring and shot himself, a suicide
that was chalked up to accident. But Phebe, one of the Trices' slaves, had
found the ring, and taken it to Annabelle Trice. Annabelle had been unable to
bear the knowledge that Phebe knew about her sin, and so she sold her. Appalled
to learn that Annabelle had sold Phebe instead of setting her free--and
appalled to learn that she had separated the slave from her husband--Cass set
out to find and free Phebe; but he failed, wounded in a fight with a man who
insinuated that he had sexual designs on Phebe.

After
that, he set to farming a plantation he had obtained with the help of his
wealthy brother Gilbert. But he freed his slaves and became a devout
abolitionist. Even so, when the war started, he enlisted as a private in the
Confederate Army. Complicating matters further, though a Confederate soldier he
vowed not to kill a single enemy soldier, since he believed himself already
responsible for the death of his friend. He was killed in a battle outside
Atlanta in 1864. After leaving to find Phebe, he had never set eyes on
Annabelle Trice again.

One
day Jack simply gave up working on his dissertation. He could not understand
why Cass Mastern acted the way he did, and he walked away from the apartment
without even boxing up the papers. A landlady sent them to him, but they
remained unopened as he endured a long stretch of the Great Sleep. The papers
remained in their unopened box throughout the time he spent with his beautiful
wife Lois; after he left her, they remained unopened. The brown paper parcel
yellowed, and the name "Jack Burden,"written on top, slowly faded.

Chapter
5 Summary

In
1936, Jack mulls over the problem of finding dirt on Judge Irwin. He thinks the
judge would have been motivated by ambition, love, fear, or money, and settles
on money as the most likely reason he might have been driven over the line. He
goes to visit his father, but the Scholarly Attorney is preoccupied taking care
of an "unfortunate" named George, and refuses to answer his
"foul" questions. He visits Anne and Adam Stanton at their father's
musty old mansion, and learns from Adam that the judge was once broke, back in
1913. But Anne tells him that the judge got out of his financial problems by
marrying a rich woman.

At
some time during this period, Jack goes to one of Tommy's football games with
Willie. Tommy wins the game, and Willie says that he will be an All- American.
Tommy receives the adulation of Willie and all his cohorts, and lives an
arrogant life full of women and alcohol. Also during this time, Jack learns
from Tiny Dufiy that Willie is spending six million dollars on the new hospital.
Soon after, Anne tells Jack that she herself had lunch with Willie, in a
successful attempt to get state funding for one of her charities.

Jack
decides to investigate the judge's financial past further. Delving into court
documents and old newspapers, he discovers that the judge had not married into
money, but had taken out a mortgage on his plantation, which he was nearly
unable to pay. A sudden windfall enabled him to stop foreclosure proceedings
toward the end of his term as Attorney General under Governor Stanton. Also,
after his term he had been given a lucrative job at American Electric Power
Company. After some further digging, Jack extracts a letter from a strange old
spiritual medium named Lily Mae Littlepaugh, from her brother George Littlepaugh,
whom Judge Irwin replaced at the power company. The letter, a suicide note,
reveals that the judge received a great deal of stock and the lucrative
position at the power company as a bribe for dismissing a court case brought
against the Southern Belle Fuel Company, which had the same parent company as
American Electric Power.

Littlepaugh
says that he visited Governor Stanton to try to convince him to bring the
matter to light, but Stanton chose to protect his friend the judge; when Miss
Littlepaugh visited the governor after her brother's suicide, he again
protected the judge, and threatened Miss Littlepaugh with prosecution for
insurance fraud. After seven months of digging, Jack has his proof.

Chapter
6 Summary

During
the time Jack is investigating Judge Irwin's background, Tommy Stark, drunk,
wraps his car around a tree, severely injuring the young girl riding with him.
Her father, a trucker, raises a tremendous noise about the accident, but he is
quieted when he is reminded that truckers drive on state highways and many
truckers have state contracts. Lucy is livid about Tommy's crash, even though
Tommy is unhurt; she insists that Willie make him stop playing football and
living his rambunctious life, but Willie says that he won't see his son turn into
a sissy, and that he wants Tommy to have fun.

Willie
is, during this time, completely committed to his six-million-dollar hospital
project, and he insists, to Jack's bemusement, that it will be completed
without any illicit wheeling and dealing. Willie is furious when Tiny Dufiy
tries to convince him to give the contract to Gummy Larson, a Mac-Murfee
supporter who would throw his support to Willie if he received the building
contract. (He would also throw a substantial sum of money to Tiny himself.) But
Willie insists that the project will be completely clean, and seems to think of
it as his legacy--he even says that he does not care whether it wins him any
votes. He insists as well that Jack convince Adam Stanton to run it.

Jack
knows that Adam hates the entire Stark administration, but he visits his
friend's apartment to make the offer nevertheless. Adam is outraged, but he
seems tempted when Jack points out how much good he would be able to do as
director of the hospital. Eventually, after Anne becomes involved, Adam agrees
to take the job. He has a conversation with Willie during which Willie espouses
his moral theory--that the only thing for a man to do is create goodness out of
badness, because everything is bad, and the only reason something becomes good
is because a person thinks it makes things better. Adam is wary of Willie, but
he still takes the job--after he receives Willie's promise not to interfere in
the running of the hospital.

During
this time Jack learns that Anne has found out that Adam received the offer to
run the hospital. She visits Jack, and says that she desperately wants Adam to
take it. In a moment of bitterness, Jack tells her about how her father
illegally protected Judge Irwin after he took the bribe. Anne is crushed; but
she visits Adam with the information, and that is what prompts Adam to
compromise his ideals and take the directorship. Anne, Adam, and Jack attend a
speech Willie gives, during which he announces his intention to give the
citizens of the state free medical care and free educations. Anne asks urgently
if Willie really means it, and Jack replies, "How the hell should I
know?"

But
something nags the back of Jack's mind: he is unable to figure out how Anne
learned that Adam had been offered the directorship of the hospital. Adam
didn't tell her, and Willie says that he didn't tell her, and Jack didn't tell
her. He finds out that Sadie Burke told her, in a jealous rage—for Sadie says
that Anne is Willie's new slut, that she has become his mistress. Jack is
shocked, but when he visits Anne, she gives him a wordless nod that confirms
Sadie's accusation.

Chapter
7 Summary

After
learning about Anne's afiair with Willie Stark, Jack ees westward. He spends
several days driving to California, then, after he arrives, three days in Long
Beach. On the way, he remembers his past with Anne Stanton, and tries to
understand what happened that led her to Willie. When they were children, Jack
spent most of his time with Adam Stanton, and Anne simply tagged along. But the
summer after his junior year at the State University, when he was twenty-one
and Anne was seventeen, Jack fell in love with Anne, and spent the summer with
her. They played tennis together, and swam together at night, and pursued an
increasingly intense physical relationship-- Jack remembers that Anne was not
prudish, that she seemed to regard her body as something they both possessed,
and that they had to explore together. Two nights before Anne was scheduled to
leave for her boarding school, they found themselves alone in Jack's house
during a thunderstorm, and nearly made love for the first time--but Jack
hesitated, and then his mother came home early, ending their chance. The next
day Jack tried to convince Anne to marry him, but she demurred, saying that she
loved him, but seemed to feel that something in his unambitious character was
an impediment to her giving in to her love. After Anne left for school, they
continued to write every day, but their feelings dwindled, and the next few
times they saw each other, things were difierent between them. Over Christmas,
Anne wouldn't let Jack make love to her, and they had a fight about it.
Eventually the letters stopped, and Jack got thrown out of law school, and
began to study history, and then eventually he was married to Lois, a beautiful
sexpot whose friends he despised and who did not interest him as a person.
Toward the end of their marriage, he entered into a phase of the Great Sleep,
and then left her altogether.

After
two years at a very refined women's college in Virginia, Anne returned to
Burden's Landing to care for her ailing father. She was engaged several times
but never married, and after her father died, she became an old maid, though
she kept her looks and her charm. She devoted herself to her work at the orphanage
and her other charities. Jack feels as though she could never marry him because
of some essential confidence he lacked, and that she was drawn to Willie Stark
because he possessed that confidence. Jack also feels that because he revealed
to Anne the truth of her father's duplicity in protecting Judge Irwin after he
accepted the bribe, he is responsible for Anne's afiair with Willie. But he
tries to convince himself that the only human motivation is a certain kind of
biological compulsion, a kind of itch in the blood, and that therefore, he is
not responsible for Anne's behavior.

He
says this attitude was a "dream" that made his trip west deliver on
its promise of "innocence and a new start"--if he was able to believe
the dream.

Chapter
8 Summary

Jack
drives eastward back to his life. He stops at a filling station in New Mexico,
where he picks up an old man heading back to Arkansas. (The old man was driven
to leave for California by the Dust Bowl, but discovered that California was no
better than his home.) The old man has a facial twitch, of which he seems
entirely unaware. Jack, thinking about the twitch, decides that it is a
metaphor for the randomness and causelessness of life--the very ideas he had
been soothing himself with in California, ideas which excused him from
responsibility for Willie and Anne's afiair--and begins to refer to the process
of life as the "Great Twitch."

Feeling
detached from the rest of the world because of his new "secret
knowledge," as he calls the idea of the Great Twitch, Jack visits Willie
and resumes his normal life. He sees Adam a few times and goes to watch him
perform a prefrontal lobotomy on a schizophrenic patient, which seems to him
another manifestation of the Great Twitch. One night, Anne calls Jack, and he meets
her at an all-night drugstore; she tells him that a man named Hubert Coffee
tried to offer Adam a bribe to throw the building contract for the new hospital
to Gummy Larson. In a rage, Adam hit the man, threw himout, and wrote a letter
resigning from his post as director of the hospital.

Anne
asks Jack to convince Adam to change his mind; Jack says that he will try, but
that Adam is acting irrationally, and therefore may not listen to reason. He
says he will tell Willie to bring charges against Hubert Coffee for the
attempted bribe, which will convince Adam that Willie is not corrupt, at least
when it comes to the hospital. Anne offers to testify, but Jack dissuades
her--if she did testify, he says, her afiair with Willie would become agrantly
and unpleasantly public. Jack asks Anne why she has given herself to Willie,
and Anne replies that she loves Willie, and that she will marry him after he is
elected to the Senate next year.

Willie
agrees to bring the charges against Coffee, and Jack is able to persuade Adam
to remain director of the hospital. That crisis is averted,but a more serious
crisis arises when a man named Marvin Frey--a man, not coincidentally, from
MacMurfee's district--accuses Tom Stark of having impregnated his daughter
Sibyl. Then one of MacMurfee's men visits Willie and says that Marvin Frey
wants Tom to marry his daughter--but that Frey will see reason if, say, Willie
were to let MacMurfee win the Senate seat next year. Willie delays his answer,
hoping to come up with a better solution.

In
the meantime, Jack goes to visit Lucy Stark at her sister's poultry farm, where
he explains to her what has happened with Tom. Lucy is crestfallen, and says
that Sibyl Frey's child is innocent of evil and innocent of politics, and
deserves to be cared for.

Willie
comes up with a shrewd solution for dealing with MacMurfee and Frey.
Remembering that MacMurfee owes most of his current political clout, such as it
is, to the fact that Judge Irwin supports him, Willie asks Jack if he was able
to discover anything sordid in Judge Irwin's past. Jack says that he was, but
he refuses to tell Willie what it is until he gives Judge Irwin the opportunity
to look at the evidence and answer for himself.

Jack
travels to Burden's Landing, where he goes for a swim and watches a young
couple playing tennis, feeling a lump in his throat at his memories of Anne. He
then goes to visit the judge, who is happy to see Jack, and who apologizes for
being so angry the last time they spoke. Jack tells the judge what MacMurfee is
trying to do and asks him to call MacMurfee off. The judge says that he refuses
to become mixed up in the matter, and Jack is forced to ask him about the bribe
and Mortimer Littlepaugh's suicide. The judge admits that he did take the
bribe, and accepts responsibility for his actions, saying that he also did some
good in his life. He refuses to give in to the blackmail attempt.

Jack
goes back to his mother's house, where he hears a scream from upstairs. Running
upstairs, he finds his mother sobbing insensibly, the phone receiver off the
hook and on the oor. When she sees Jack she cries out that Jack has killed
Judge Irwin--whom she refers to as Jack's father. Jack learns that Judge Irwin
has committed suicide, by shooting himself in the heart, at the same moment he
learns that Judge Irwin, and not the Scholarly Attorney, was his real father.
Jack realizes that the Scholarly Attorney must have left Jack's mother when he
learned of her afiair with the judge. In a way, Jack is glad to be unburdened
of his father's weakness, which he felt as a curse, and is even glad to have
traded a weak father for a strong one. But he remembers his father giving him a
chocolate when he was a child, and says that he was not sure how he felt.

Jack
goes back to the capital, where he learns the next day that he was Judge
Irwin's sole heir. He has inherited the very estate that the judge took the
bribe in order to save. The situation seems so crazily logical--Judge Irwin
takes the bribe in order to save the estate, then fathers Jack, who tries to
blackmail his father with information about the bribe, which causes Judge Irwin
to commit suicide, which causes Jack to inherit the estate; had Judge Irwin not
taken the bribe, Jack would have had nothing to inherit, and had Jack not tried
to blackmail Judge Irwin, the judge would not have killed himself, and Jack
would not have inherited the estate when he did--so crazily logical that Jack
bursts out laughing. But before long he is sobbing and saying "the poor
old bugger" over and over again. Jack says this is like the ice breaking
up after a long, cold winter.

Chapter
9 Summary

Jack
goes to visit Willie, who asks him about Judge Irwin's death. Jack tells the
Boss that he will no longer have anything to do with blackmail, even on
MacMurfee, and he is set to work on a tax bill. Over the next few weeks, Tom
continues to shine at his football games, but the Sibyl Frey incident has left
Willie irritable and dour as he tries to concoct a plan for dealing with
MacMurfee. In the end, Willie is forced to give the hospital contract to Gummy
Larson, who can control MacMurfee, who can call off Marvin Frey. Jack goes to
the Governor's Mansion the night the deal is made, and finds Willie a drunken
wreck; Willie insults and threatens Gummy Larson, and throws a drink in Tiny
Dufiy's face. Tom continues to spiral out of control. He gets in a fight with
some yokels at a bar, and is suspended for the game against Georgia, which the
team loses. Two games later, Tom is injured in the game against Tech, and is
carried off the field unconscious. Willie watches the rest of the game, which
State wins easily, then goes to the hospital to check on Tom. Jack goes back to
the offce, where he finds Sadie Burke sitting alone in the dark, apparently
very upset. Sadie leaves when Jack tells her about Tom's injury, then calls
from the hospital to tell Jack to come over right away.

Jack
goes to the hospital, where the Boss sends him to pick up Lucy. Jack does so,
and upon their arrival they learn that the specialist Adam Stanton called in to
look at Tom has been held up by fog in Baltimore. Willie is frantic, but
eventually the specialist arrives. His diagnosis matches Adam's: Tom has
fractured two vertebrae, and the two doctors recommend a risky surgery to see
if the damage can be repaired. They undertake the surgery, and Willie, Jack,
and Lucy wait. Willie tells Lucy that he plans to name the hospital after Tom,
but Lucy says that things like that don't matter. At six o'clock in the
morning, Adam returns, and tells the group that Tom will live, but that his
spinal cord is crushed, and he will be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Lucy
takes Willie home, and Jack calls Anne with the news. The operation was
accomplished just before dawn on Sunday. On Monday, Jack sees the piles of telegrams
that have come into the offce from political allies and well-wishers, and talks
to the obsequious Tiny. When Willie comes in, he declares to Tiny that he is
canceling Gummy Larson's contract. He implies that he plans to change the way
things are done at the capital. Jack is taking some tax-bill figures to the
Senate when he learns that Sadie has just stormed out of the offce, and
receives word that Anne has just called with an urgent message.

Jack
goes to see Anne, who says that Adam has learned about her relationship with
Willie, and believes the afiair to be the reason he was given the directorship
of the hospital. She tells Jack that Willie has broken off the afiair because
he plans to go back to his wife. She asks Jack to find Adam and tell him that that
isn't the way things happened. Jack spends the day trying to track down Adam,
but he fails to find him. That night, Jack is paged to go to the Capitol, where
the vote on the tax bill is taking place. Here, Jack greets Sugar-Boy and
watches the Boss talk to his political hangers-on. The Boss tells Jack that he
wants to tell him something. As they walk across the lobby, they see a
rain-and-mud-soaked Adam Stanton leaning against the pedestal of a statue.
Willie reaches out his hand to shake Adam's; in a blur, Adam draws a gun and
shoots Willie, then is shot himself by Sugar-Boy and a highway patrolman. Jack
runs to Adam, who is already dead.

Willie
survives for a few days, and at first the prognosis from the hospital is that
he will recover. But then he catches an infection, and Jack realizes that he is
going to die. Just before the end, he summons Jack to his hospital bed, where
he says over and over again that everything could have been difierent.

After
he dies, he is given a massive funeral. Jack says that the other funeral he
went to that week was quite difierent: it was Adam Stanton's funeral at
Burden's Landing.

Chapter
10 Summary

After
Adam's funeral and Willie's funeral, Jack spends some time in Burden's Landing,
spending his days quietly with Anne. They never discuss Willie's death or
Adam's death; instead they sit wordlessly together, or Jack reads aloud from a
book. Then one day Jack begins to wonder how Adam learned about Anne and
Willie's afiair. He asks her, but she says she does not know-- a man called and
told him, but she does not know who it was. Jack goes to visit Sadie Burke in
the sanitarium where she has gone to recover her nerves. She tells Jack that
Tiny Dufiy (now the governor of the state) was the man who called Adam; and she
confesses that Tiny learned about the afiair from her. She was so angry about
Willie leaving her to go back to Lucy that she told Tiny out of revenge,
knowing that, by doing so, she was all but guaranteeing Willie's death. Jack
blames Tiny rather than Sadie, and Sadie agrees to make a statement which Jack
can use to bring about Tiny's downfall.

A
week later, Dufiy summons Jack to see him. He offers Jack his job back, with a
substantial raise over Jack's already substantial income. Jack refuses, and
tells Tiny he knows about his role in Willie's death. Tiny is stunned, and
frightened, and when Jack leaves he feels heroic. But his feeling of moral
heroism quickly dissolves into an acidic bitterness, because he realizes he is
trying to make Tiny the sole villain as a way of denying his own share of
responsibility. Jack withdraws into numbness, not even opening a letter from
Anne when he receives it. He receives a letter from Sadie with her statement,
saying that she is moving away and that she hopes Jack will let matters
drop--Tiny has no chance to win the next gubernatorial election anyway, and if
Jack pursues the matter Anne's name will be dragged through the mud. But Jack
had already decided not to pursue it.

At
the library Jack sees Sugar-Boy, and asks him what he would do if he learned
that there was a man besides Adam who was responsible for Willie's death.
Sugar-Boy says he would kill him, and Jack nearly tells him about Tiny's role.
But he decides not to at the last second, and instead tells Sugar-Boy that it was
a joke. Jack also goes to see Lucy, who has adopted Sibyl Frey's child, which
she believes is Tom's. She tells Jack that Tom died of pneumonia shortly after
the accident, and that the baby is the only thing that enabled her to live. She
also tells him that she believes--and has to believe--that Willie was a great
man. Jack says that he also believes it.

Jack
goes to visit his mother at Burden's Landing, where he learns that she is
leaving Theodore Murrell, the Young Executive. He is surprised to learn that
she is doing so because she loved Judge Irwin all along. This knowledge changes
Jack's long-held impression of his mother as a woman without a heart, and helps
to shatter his belief in the Great Twitch. At the train station, he lies to his
mother, and tells her that Judge Irwin killed himself not because of anything
that Jack did, but because of his failing health. He thinks of this lie as his
last gift to her.

After
his mother leaves, he goes to visit Anne, and tells her the truth about his
parentage. Eventually, he and Anne are married, and in the early part of 1939,
when Jack is writing his story, they are living in Judge Irwin's house in
Burden's Landing. The Scholarly Attorney, now frail and dying, lives with them.
Jack is working on a book about Cass Mastern, whom he believes he can finally
understand. After the old man dies and the book is finished, Jack says, he and
Anne will leave Burden's Landing--stepping "out of history into history
and the awful responsibility of Time."

CATCH-22

(Joseph Heller)

SOME INFO ON
JOSEPH HELLER

b. May 1, 1923,
Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.

American writer whose novel Catch-22 (1961) was one of the most
significant works of protest literature to appear after World War II. The
satirical novel was both a critical and a popular success, and a film version
appeared in 1970.Heller flew 60 combat missions as a bombardier with the U.S.
Air Force in Europe. He received an M.A. at Columbia University in 1949 and was
a Fulbright scholar at the University of Oxford (1949-50). He taught English at
Pennsylvania State University (1950-52) and worked as an advertising copywriter
for the magazines Time (1952-56) and Look (1956-58) and as promotion manager
for McCall's (1958-61), meanwhile writing Catch-22 in his spare time. The plot
of the novel centres on the antihero Captain John Yossarian, stationed at an
airstrip on a Mediterranean island in World War II, and portrays his desperate
attempts to stay alive. The "catch" in Catch-22 involves a mysterious
Air Force regulation, which asserts that a man is considered insane if he
willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions; but, if he makes the
necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of
making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be
relieved. The term Catch-22 thereafter entered the English language as a
reference to a proviso that trips one up no matter which way one turns.His
later novels including Something Happened (1974), an unrelievedly pessimistic
novel, Good as Gold (1979), a satire on life in Washington, D.C., and God Knows
(1984), a wry, contemporary-vernacular monologue in the voice of the biblical
King David, were less successful. Closing Time, a sequel to Catch-22, appeared
in 1994. Heller's dramatic work includes the play We Bombed in New Haven
(1968).

CONTEXT

Joseph Heller
was born in Brooklyn in 1923. He served as an Air Force bombardier in World War
II, and has enjoyed a long career as a writer and a teacher. His bestselling
books include Something Happened, Good as Gold, Picture This, God Knows, and
Closing Time--but his first novel, Catch-22, remains his most famous and acclaimed
work.

Written while
Heller worked producing ad copy for a New York City marketing firm, Catch-22
draws heavily on Heller's Air Force experience, and presents a war story that
is at once hilarious, grotesque, bitterly cynical, and utterly stirring. The
novel generated a great deal of controversy upon its publication; critics
tended either to adore it or despise it, and those who hated it did so for the
same reason as the critics who loved it. Over time, Catch-22 has become one of
the defining novels of the twentieth century. It presents an utterly
unsentimental vision of war, stripping all romantic pretense away from combat,
replacing visions of glory and honor with a kind of nightmarish comedy of
violence, bureaucracy, and paradoxical madness.

Unlike other
anti-romantic war novels, such as Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front,
Catch-22 relies heavily on humor to convey the insanity of war, presenting the
horrible meaninglessness of armed conflict through a kind of desperate
absurdity, rather than through graphic depictions of suffering and violence.
Catch-22 also distinguishes itself from other anti-romantic war novels by its
core values: Yossarian's story is ultimately not one of despair, but one of
hope; the positive urge to live and to be free can redeem the individual from
the dehumanizing machinery of war. The novel is told as a disconnected series
of loosely related, tangential stories in no particular chronological order;
the final narrative that emerges from this structural tangle upholds the value
of the individual in the face of the impersonal, collective military mass; at
every stage, it mocks insincerity and hypocrisy even when they appear to be
triumphant.

SUMMARY FOR
"CATCH-22"

Chapters 1-5

Yossarian is in
a military hospital in Italy with a liver condition that isn't quite jaundice.
He is not really even sick, but he prefers the hospital to the war outside, so
he pretends to have a pain in his liver. The doctors are unable to prove him
wrong, so they let him stay, perplexed at his failure to develop jaundice.
Yossarian shares the hospital ward with his friend Dunbar; a bandaged, immobile
man called the soldier in white; and a pair of nurses Yossarian suspect hate
him. One day an affable Texan is brought into the ward, where he tries to
convince the other patients that "decent folk" should get extra
votes. The Texan is so nice that everyone hates him. A chaplain comes to see
Yossarian, and although he confuses the chaplain badly during their
conversation, Yossarian is filled with love for him. Less than ten days after
the Texan is sent to the ward, everyone but the soldier in white flees the
ward, recovering from their ailments and returning to active duty.

Outside the
hospital there is a war going on, and millions of boys are bombing each other
to death. No one seems to have a problem with this arrangement except
Yossarian, who once argued with Clevinger, an officer in his group, about the
war. Yossarian claimed that everyone was trying to kill him. Clevinger argued
that no one was trying to kill Yossarian personally, but Yossarian has no
patience for Clevinger's talk of countries and honor and insists that they are
trying to kill him. After being released from the hospital, Yossarian sees his
roommate Orr and notices that Clevinger is still missing. He remembers the last
time he and Clevinger called each other crazy, during a night at the officers'
club when Yossarian announced to everyone present that he was superhuman
because no one had managed to kill him yet. Yossarian is suspicious of everyone
when he gets out of the hospital; he has a meal in Milo's mess hall, then talks
to Doc Daneeka, who enrages Yossarian by telling him that Colonel Cathcart has
raised to fifty the number of missions required before a soldier can be
discharged. The previous number was forty-five. Yossarian has flown forty
missions.

Yossarian talks
to Orr, who tells him an irritating story about how he liked to keep crab
apples in his cheeks when he was younger. Yossarian briefly remembers the time
a whore had beaten Orr over the head with her shoe in Rome outside Nately's
whore's kid sister's room. Yossarian notices that Orr is even smaller than
Huple, who lives near Hungry Joe's tent. Hungry Joe has nightmares whenever he
isn't scheduled to fly a mission the next day; his screaming keeps the whole
camp awake. Hungry Joe's tent is near a road where the men sometimes pick up
girls and take them out to the the tall grass near the open-air movie theater
that a U.S.O. troupe visited that same afternoon. The troupe was sent by an
ambitious general named P.P. Peckem, who hopes to take over the command of
Yossarian's wing from General Dreedle. General Peckem's troubleshooter Colonel
Cargill, who used to be a spectacular failure as a marketing executive and who
is now a spectacular failure as a colonel. Yossarian feels sick, but Doc
Daneeka still refuses to ground him. Doc Daneeka advises Yossarian to be like
Havermeyer and make the best of it; Havermeyer is a fearless lead bombardier.
Yossarian thinks that he himself is a lead bombardier filled with a very
healthy fear. Havermeyer likes to shoot mice in the middle of the night; once,
he woke Hungry Joe and caused him to dive into one of the slit trenchs that
have appeared nightly beside every tent since Milo Minderbinder, the mess
officer, bombed the squadron.

Hungry Joe is
crazy, and though Yossarian tries to help him, Hungry Joe won't listen to his
advice because he thinks Yossarian is crazy. Doc Daneeka doesn't believe Hungry
Joe has problems--he thinks only he has problems, because his lucrative medical
practice was ended by the war. Yossarian remembers trying to disrupt the
educational meeting in Captain Black's intelligence tent by asking unanswerable
questions, which caused Group Headquarters to make a rule that the only people
who could ask questions were the ones who never did. This rule comes from
Colonel Cathcart and Lieutenant Colonel Korn, who also approved the skeet
shooting range where Yossarian can never hit anything. Dunbar loves shooting
skeet because he hates it and it makes the time go more slowly; his goal is to
live as long as possible by slowing down time, so he loves boredom and
discomfort, and he argues about this with Clevinger.

Doc Daneeka
lives in a tent with an alcoholic Indian named Chief White Halfoat, where he
tells Yossarian about some sexually inept newlyweds he had in his office once.
Chief White Halfoat comes in and tells Yossarian that Doc Daneeka is crazy and
then relates the story of his own family: everywhere they went, someone struck
oil, and so oil companies sent agents and equipment to follow them wherever
they went. Doc Daneeka still refuses to ground Yossarian, who asks if he would
be grounded if he were crazy. Doc Daneeka says yes, and Yossarian decides to go
crazy. But that solution is too easy: there is a catch. Doc Daneeka tells
Yossarian about Catch-22, which holds that, to be grounded for insanity, a
pilot must ask to be grounded, but that any pilot who asks to be grounded must
be sane. Impressed, Yossarian takes Doc Daneeka's word for it, just as he had
taken Orr's word about the flies in Appleby's eyes. Orr insists there are flies
in Appleby's eyes, and though Yossarian has no idea what Orr means, he believes
Orr because he has never lied to him before. They once told Appleby about the
flies, so that Appleby was worried on the way to a briefing, after which they
all took off in B-25s for a bombing run. Yossarian shouted directions to the
pilot, McWatt, to avoid antiaircraft fire while Yossarian dropped the bombs.
Another time while they were taking evasive action Dobbs went crazy and started
screaming "Help him," while the plane spun out of control and
Yossarian believed he was going to die. In the back of the plane, Snowden was
dying.

Chapters 6-10

Hungry Joe has
his fifty missions, but the orders to send him home never come, and he
continues to scream all through every night. Doc Daneeka persists in feeling
sorry for himself while ignoring Hungry Joe's problems. Hungry Joe is driven
crazy by noises, and is mad with lust--he is desperate to take pictures of
naked women, but the pictures never come out. He pretends to be an important
Life magazine photographer, and the irony is that he really was a photographer
for Life before the war. Hungry Joe has flown six tours of duty, but every time
he finishes one Colonel Cathcart raises the number of missions required before
Hungry Joe is sent home. When this happens, the nightmares stop until Hungry
Joe finishes another tour. Colonel Cathcart is very brave about sending his men
into dangerous situations--no situation is too dangerous, just as no ping-pong
shot is too hard for Appleby. One night Orr attacked Appleby in the middle of a
game; a fight broke out, and Chief White Halfoat busted Colonel Moodus, General
Dreedle's son-in-law, in the nose. General Dreedle enjoyed that so much he kept
calling Chief White Halfoat in to repeat the performance--but the Indian
remains a marginal figure in the camp, much like Major Major, who was promoted
to squadron commander while playing basketball and who has been ostracized ever
since. Also, Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen explains to Yossarian how Catch-22 requires
him to fly the extra missions Colonel Cathcart orders, even though
Twenty-Seventh Air Force regulations only demand forty missions.

Yossarian's
pilot, McWatt, is possibly the craziest of all the men, because he is perfectly
sane but he does not mind the war. He is smiling and polite and loves to whistle
show tunes. He is impressed with Milo--but not as impressed as Milo was with
the letter Yossarian got from Doc Daneeka about his liver, which ordered the
mess hall to give Yossarian all the fresh fruit he wanted, which, in turn,
Yossarian refused to eat, because if his liver improved he couldn't go to the
hospital whenever he wanted. Milo is involved in the black market, and he tries
to convince Yossarian to go in with him in selling the fruit, but Yossarian
refuses. Milo is indignant when he learns that a C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation
Division) man is searching for a criminal who has been forging Washington
Irving's name in censored letters--it is Yossarian who used to pass time in the
hospital by writing the letters. But Milo is convinced the C.I.D. man is trying
to set him up because of his black market activity. Milo wants to organize the
men into a syndicate, as he demonstrates by returning McWatt's stolen bedsheet
in pieces--half for McWatt, a quarter for Milo, and so on. Milo has a grasp on
some confusing economics: he manages to make a profit buying eggs in Malta for
seven cents apiece and selling them in Pianosa for five cents apiece.

Not even
Clevinger understands that, but though he is a dope, he usually understands
everything, except why Yossarian insists that so many people are trying to kill
him. Yossarian remembers training in America with Clevinger under Lieutenant
Scheisskopf, who was obsessed with parades, and whose wife, along with her
friend Dori Duz, used to sleep with all the men under her husband's command.
Lieutenant Scheisskopf hated Clevinger, and finally got him sent to trial under
a belligerant colonel. Clevinger is stunned when he realizes that Lieutenant
Scheisskopf and the colonel truly hate him, in a way that no enemy soldier ever
could.

Given a
horrible name at birth because of his father's horrible sense of humor, Major
Major Major was chagrined when, the day he joined the army, he was promoted to
Major by an IBM machine with an equally horrible sense of humor, making him
Major Major Major Major. Major Major Major Major also looks vaguely like Henry
Fonda, and did so well in school that he was suspected of being a Communist and
monitored by the FBI. His sudden promotion stunned his drill sergeant, who had
to train a man who was suddenly his superior officer. Luckily, Major Major
applied for aviation cadet training, and was sent to Lieutenant Scheisskopf.
Not long after arriving in Pianosa, he was made squadron commander by an irate
Colonel Cathcart, after which he lost all his new friends. Major Major has
always been a drab, mediocre sort of person, and had never had friends before;
he lapses into an awkward depression and refuses to be seen in his office
except when he isn't there. To make himself feel better, Major Major forges
Washington Irving's name to official documents. He is confused about
everything, including his official relationship to Major ----- de Coverley, his
executive officer: He doesn't know whether he is Major ----- de Coverlay's
subordinate, or vice versa. A C.I.D. man comes to investigate the Washington
Irving scandal, but Major Major denies knowledge, and the incompetent C.I.D.
man believes him--as does another C.I.D. man who arrives shortly thereafter,
then leaves to investigate the first C.I.D. man. Major Major takes to wearing
dark glasses and a false mustache when forging Washington Irving's name. One
day Major Major is tackled by Yossarian, who demands to be grounded. Sadly,
Major Major tells Yossarian that there is nothing he can do.

Clevinger's
plane disappeared in a cloud off the coast of Elba, and he is presumed dead.
Yossarian finds the disappearance as stunning as that of a whole squadron of
sixty-four men who all deserted in one day. Then he tells ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen
the news, but ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen isn't impressed with the disappearance.
Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen continually goes AWOL, then is required to dig holes and
fill them up again--work he seems to enjoy. One day ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen
nicked a water pipe, and water sprayed everywhere, leading to mass confusion
much like that of the night seven months later when Milo bombed the camp. Word
spread that the water was oil, and Chief White Halfoat was kicked off the base.
Around this time, Appleby tried to turn Yossarian in for not taking his Atabrine
tablets, but the only time he was allowed to go into Major Major's office was
when Major Major wasn't there. Yossarian remembers Mudd, a soldier who died
immediately after arriving at the camp, and whose belongings are still in
Yossarian's tent. The belongings are contaminated with death in the same way
that the whole camp was contaminated before the deadly mission of the Great Big
Siege of Bologna, for which Colonel Cathcart bravely volunteered his men.
During this time even sick men were not allowed to be grounded by doctors. Dr.
Stubbs is overwhelmed with cynicism, and asks what the point is of saving lives
when everyone dies anyway. Dunbar says that the point is to live as long as you
can and forget about the fact that you will eventually die.

Chapters 11-16

Captain Black
is pleased to hear the news that Colonel Cathcart has volunteered the men for
the lethally dangerous mission of bombing Bologna. Captain Black thinks the men
are bastards, and gloats about their terrifying, violent task. Captain Black is
extremely ambitious, and hoped to be promoted to squadron commander; when Major
Major was picked over him, he lapsed into a deep depression, which the Bologna
mission lifts him out of. Captain Black first tried to get revenge on Major
Major by initiating the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade, when he forced all the
men to swear elaborate oaths of loyalty before doing basic things like eating
meals. He refused to let Major Major sign a loyalty oath, and hoped thereby to
make him appear disloyal. The Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade was a major event
in the camp, until the fearsome Major ----- de Coverley put a stop to it by
hollering "Give me eat!" in the mess hall without signing an oath.

It rains
interminably before the Bologna mission, and the bombing run is delayed by the
rain. The men all hope it will never stop raining, and when it does, Yossarian
moves the bomb line on the map so that the commanding officers will think
Bologna has already been captured. Then the rain starts again. In the meantime,
Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen tries to sell Yossarian a cigarette lighter, thus going
into competition with Milo as a black market trader. He is aghast that Milo has
cornered the entire world market for Egyptian cotton but is unable to unload
any of it. The men are terrified and miserable over Bologna. Clevenger and
Yossarian argue about whether it is Yossarian's duty to bomb Bologna, and by
the middle of the second week of waiting, everyone in the squadron looks like
Hungry Joe. One night Yossarian, Nately, and Dunbar go for a drunken drive with
Chief White Halfoat; they crash the jeep, and realize it has stopped raining.
Back in the tents, Hungry Joe is trying to shoot Huple's cat, which has been
giving him nightmares, and the men force Hungry Joe to fight the cat fairly.
The cat runs away, and Hungry Joe is the self-satisfied winner; then he goes
back to sleep and has another nightmare about the cat.

Major ----- de
Coverley is a daunting, majestic man with a lion's mane of white hair, an
eagle's gaze, and a transparent eyepatch. Everyone is afraid of him, and no one
will talk to him. His sole duties include travelling to major cities captured
by the Americans and renting rooms for his men to take rest leaves in; he
spends the rest of his time playing horseshoes. He is so good at his room-
renting duties that he always manages to be photographed with the first wave of
American troops moving into a city, a fact which perplexes both the enemy and
the American commanders. Major ----- de Coverley is a force of nature, but when
Yossarian moved the bomb line, he was fooled and traveled to enemy-controlled
Bologna; he still has not returned. Once, Milo approached him on the horseshoe
range and convinced him to authorize Milo to import eggs with Air Force planes.
This elated the men, except for Colonel Cathcart, whose spur-of-the-moment
attempt to promote Major Major failed, unlike his attempt to give Yossarian a
medal some time earlier, which succeeded. Back when Yossarian was brave, he
circled over a target twice in order to hit it; on the second overpass, Mudd
was killed by shrapnel. The authorities didn't know how to rebuke Yossarian for
his foolhardiness, so they decided to stave off criticism by giving him a
medal.

The squadron
finally receives the go-ahead to bomb Bologna, and by this time Yossarian
doesn't feel like going over the target even once. He pretends that his plane's
intercom system is broken and orders his men to turn back. They land at the
deserted airfield just before dawn, feeling strangely morose; Yossarian takes a
nap on the beach and wakes up when the planes fly back. Not a single plane has
been hit. Yossarian thinks that there must have been too many clouds for the
men to bomb the city, and that they will have to make another attempt, but he
is wrong. There was no antiaircraft fire, and the city was bombed with no
losses to the Americans.

Captain
Pilchard and Captain Wren ineffectually reprimand Yossarian and his crew for
turning back, then inform the men that they will have to bomb Bologna again, as
they missed the ammunition dumps the first time. Yossarian confidently flies
in, assuming there will be no antiaircraft fire, and is stunned when shrapnel
begins firing up toward him through the skies. He furiously directs McWatt
through evasive maneuvers, and fights with the strangely cheerful Aarfy until
the bombs are dropped; Yossarian doesn't die, and the plane lands safely. He
heads immediately for emergency rest leave in Rome, where he meets Luciana the
same night.

Luciana is a
beautiful Italian girl Yossarian meets at a bar in Rome. After he buys her
dinner and dances with her, she agrees to sleep with him, but not right
then--she will come to his room the next morning. She does, then angrily
refuses to sleep with Yossarian until she cleans his room--she disgustedly
calls him a pig. Finally, she lets him sleep with her. Afterward, Yossarian
falls in love with her and asks her to marry him; she says she can't marry him
because he's crazy, and he's crazy because he wants to marry her, because no
one in their right mind would marry a girl who wasn't a virgin. She tells him
about a scar she got when the Americans bombed her town. Suddenly, Hungry Joe
rushes in with his camera, and Yossarian and Luciana have to get dressed.
Laughing, they go outside, where they part ways. Luciana gives Yossarian her
number, telling him she expects that he will tear it up as soon as she leaves,
self-impressed that such a pretty girl would sleep with him for free. He asks
her why on Earth he would do such a thing. As soon as she leaves, Yossarian,
self-impressed that such a pretty girl would sleep with him for free, tears up
her number. Almost immediately, he regrets it, and, after learning that Colonel
Cathcart has raised the number of missions to forty, he makes the anguished
decision to go straight to the hospital.

Chapters 17-21

Things are
better at the hospital, Yossarian decides, than they are on a bomb run with
Snowden dying in the back whispering "I'm cold." At the hospital,
Death is orderly and polite, and there is no inexplicable violence. Dunbar is
in the hospital with Yossarian, and they are both perplexed by the soldier in
white, a man completely covered in plaster bandages. The men in the hospital
discuss the injustice of mortality--some men are killed and some aren't, some
men get sick and some don't, with no reference to who deserves what. Some time
earlier Clevinger saw justice in it, but Yossarian was too busy keeping track
of all the forces trying to kill him to listen. Later, he and Hungry Joe
collect lists of fatal diseases with which they worry Doc Daneeka, who is the
only person who can ground Yossarian, according to Major Major. Doc Daneeka
tells Yossarian to fly his fifty-five missions, and he'll think about helping
him.

The first time
Yossarian ever goes to the hospital, he is still a private. He feigns an
abdominal pain, then mimics the mysterious ailment of the soldier who saw
everything twice. He spends Thanksgiving in the hospital, and vows to spend all
future Thanksgivings there; but he spends the next Thanksgiving in bed with
Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife, arguing about God. Once Yossarian is
"cured" of seeing everything twice, he is asked to pretend to be a
dying soldier for a mother and father who have traveled to see their son, who
died that morning. Yossarian allows them to bandage his face, and pretends to
be the soldier.

The ambitious
Colonel Cathcart browbeats the chaplain, demanding prayer before each bombing
run, then abandons the idea when he realizes that the Saturday Evening Post,
where he got the idea, probably wouldn't give him any publicity for it. The
chaplain timidly mentions that some of the men have complained about Colonel
Cathcart's habit of raising the number of missions required every few weeks,
but Colonel Cathcart ignores him. On his way home, the chaplain meets Colonel
Korn, Colonel Cathcart's wily, cynical sidekick, who mocks Colonel Cathcart in
front of the chaplain and is highly suspicious of the plum tomato Colonel
Cathcart gave the chaplain. At his tent in the woods, the chaplain encounters
the hostile Corporal Whitcomb, his atheist assistant, who resents him deeply
for holding back his career. Corporal Whitcomb tells the chaplain that a C.I.D.
man suspects him of signing Washington Irving's name to official papers, and of
stealing plum tomatoes. The poor chaplain is very unhappy, helpless to improve
anyone's life.

Colonel
Cathcart is preoccupied with the problem of Yossarian, who has become a real
black eye for him, most recently by complaining about the number of missions,
but previously by appearing naked at his own medal ceremony shortly after
Snowden's death. Colonel Cathcart wishes he knew how to solve the problem and
impress General Dreedle, his commanding officer. General Dreedle doesn't care
what his men do, as long as they remain reliable military quantities. He
travels everywhere with a buxom nurse, and worries mostly about Colonel Moodus,
his despised son in law, whom he occasionally asks Chief White Halfoat to punch
in the nose. Once Colonel Korn tried to undercut Colonel Cathcart by giving a
flamboyant briefing to impress General Dreedle; General Dreedle told Colonel
Cathcart that Colonel Korn made him sick.

Chapters 22-26

Yossarian loses
his nerve on the mission that follows Colonel Korn's extravagant briefing, the
mission where Snowden is killed and spattered all over Yossarian's uniform when
Dobbs goes crazy and seizes the plane's controls from Huple. As he dies,
Snowden pleads with Yossarian to help him; he says he is cold. Dobbs is a
terrible pilot and a wreck of a man, and he later tells Yossarian he plans to
kill Colonel Cathcart before he raises the mission total again; he asks
Yossarian to give him the go-ahead, but Yossarian is unable to do so, so Dobbs
abandons his plan. Yossarian thinks that Dobbs is almost as bad as Orr, with
whom Yossarian and Milo recently took a trip to stock up on supplies. As they
travel, Orr and Yossarian gradually realize the extent of Milo's control over
the black market and vast international influence: he is the mayor of Palermo,
the Assistant Governor-General of Malta, the Vice-Shah of Oran, the Caliph of
Baghdad, the Imam of Damascus, the Sheik of Araby, and is worshipped as a god
in parts of Africa. Each region has embraced him because he revitalized their
economy with his syndicate, in which everybody has a share. Nevertheless,
throughout their trip, Orr and Yossarian are forced to sleep in the plane while
Milo enjoys lavish palaces, and they are finally awakened in the middle of the
night so that Milo can rush his shipment of red bananas to their next stop.

One evening
Nately finds his whore in Rome again after a long search. He tries to convince
Yossarian and Aarfy to take two of her friends for thirty dollars each. Aarfy
objects that he has never had to pay for sex. Nately's whore is sick of Nately,
and begins to swear at him; then Hungry Joe arrives, and the group abandons
Aarfy and goes to the apartment building where the girls live. Here they find a
seemingly endless flow of naked young women; Hungry Joe is torn between taking
in the scene and rushing back for his camera. Nately argues with an old man who
lives at the building about nationalism and moral duty--the old man claims
Italy is doing better than America in the war because it has already been
occupied, so Italian boys are no longer being killed. He gleefully admits to
swearing loyalty to whatever nation happens to be in power. The patriotic,
idealistic Nately cannot believe his ears, and argues somewhat haltingly for
America's international supremacy and the values it represents. But he is
troubled because, though they are absolutely nothing alike, the old man reminds
him of his father.

By April,
Milo's influence is massive. The mess officer controls the international black
market, plays a major role in the world economy, and uses Air Force planes from
countries all over the world to carry shipments of his supplies; the planes are
repainted with an "M & M Enterprises" logo, but Milo continues to
insist that everybody has a share in his syndicate. Milo contracts with the
Germans to bomb the Americans, and with the Americans to shoot down German
planes. German anti-aircraft guns contracted by Milo even shot down Mudd, the
dead man in Yossarian's tent, for which Yossarian holds a grudge against Milo.
Milo wants Yossarian's help concocting a solution for unloading his massive
holdings of Egyptian cotton, which he cannot sell and which threatens to ruin
his entire operation. One evening after dinner, Milo's planes begin to bomb
Milo's own camp: He has landed another contract with the Germans, and dozens of
men are wounded and killed during the attack. Almost everyone wants to end M
& M Enterprises right then, but Milo shows them how much money they have
all made, and the survivors almost all forgive him. While Yossarian sits naked
in a tree watching Snowden's funeral, Milo seeks him out to talk to him about
the cotton; he gives Yossarian some chocolate-covered cotton and tries to
convince him it is really candy. Yossarian tells Milo to ask the government to
buy his cotton, and Milo is struck by the intelligence behind the idea.

The chaplain is
troubled. No one seems to treat him as a regular human being; everyone is
uncomfortable in his presence, he is intimidated by the soldiers--especially
Colonel Cathcart--and he is generally ineffectual as a religious leader. He
grows increasingly miserable, and is sustained solely by the thought of the
religious visions he has seen since his arrival, such as the vision of the
naked man in the tree at Snowden's funeral. Of course, the naked man was Yossarian.
He dreams of his wife and children dying horribly in his absence. He tries to
see Major Major about the number of missions the men are asked to fly, but,
like everyone else, finds that Major Major will not allow him into his office
except when he is out. On the way to see Major Major a second time, the
chaplain encounters Flume, Chief White Halfoat's old roommate who is so afraid
of having his throat slit while he sleeps that he has taken to living in the
forest. The chaplain then learns that Corporal Whitcomb has been promoted to sergeant
by Colonel Cathcart for an idea that the colonel believes will land him in the
Saturday Evening Post. The chaplain tries to mingle with the men at the
officers' club, but Colonel Cathcart periodically throws him out. The chaplain
takes to doubting everything, even God.

The night
Nately falls in love with his whore, she sits naked from the waist down in a
room full of enlisted men playing blackjack. She is already sick of Nately, and
tries to interest one of the enlisted men, but none of them notice her. Nately
follows her out, then to the officers' apartments in Rome, where she tries the
same trick on Nately's friends. Aarfy calls her a slut, and Nately is deeply
offended. Aarfy is the navigator of the flight on which Yossarian is finally
hit by flak; he is wounded in the leg and taken to the hospital, where he and
Dunbar change identities by ordering lower-ranking men to trade beds with them.
Dunbar pretends to be A. Fortiori. Finally they are caught by Nurse Cramer and
Nurse Duckett, who takes Yossarian by the ear and puts him back to bed.

Chapters 27-31

The next
morning, while Nurse Duckett is smoothing the sheets at the foot of his bed,
Yossarian thrusts his hand up her skirt. She shrieks and rushes away, and
Dunbar grabs her bosom from behind. When she is finally rescued by a furious
doctor, Yossarian tries to plead insanity--he says he has a recurring dream
about a fish--so he is assigned an appointment with Major Sanderson, the
hospital psychiatrist. Sanderson is more interested in discussing his own
problems than his patient's. Yossarian's friends visit him in the
hospital--Dobbs offers again to kill Colonel Cathcart--and finally, after
Yossarian admits that he thinks people are trying to kill him and that he has not
adjusted to the war, Major Sanderson decides that Yossarian really is crazy and
decides to send him home. But because of the identity mixup perpetrated by
Yossarian and Dunbar earlier in their hospital stay, there is a mistake, and A.
Fortiori is sent home instead. Furiously, Yossarian goes to see Doc Daneeka,
but Doc Daneeka will not ground Yossarian for reasons of insanity. Who else but
a crazy man, he asks, would go out to fight?

Yossarian goes
to see Dobbs, and tells him to go ahead and kill Colonel Cathcart. But Dobbs
has finished his sixty missions, and is waiting to be sent home; he no longer
needs to kill Colonel Cathcart. When Yossarian says that Colonel Cathcart will
simply raise the number of missions again, Dobbs says he'll wait and see, but that
perhaps Orr would help Yossarian kill the colonel. Orr crashed his plane again
while Yossarian was in the hospital and was fished out of the ocean--none of
the life jackets in his plane worked, because Milo took out the carbon dioxide
tanks to use for making ice-cream sodas. Now, Orr is tinkering with the stove
he is trying to build in his and Yossarian's tent; he suggests that Yossarian
should try flying a mission with him for practice in case he ever has to make a
crash landing. Yossarian broods about the rumored second mission to Bologna.
Orr is making noise and irritating him, and Yossarian imagines killing him,
which Yossarian finds a relaxing thought. They talk about women--Orr says they
don't like Yossarian, and Yossarian replies that they're crazy. Orr tells
Yossarian that he knows Yossarian has asked not to fly with him, and offers to
tell Yossarian the story of why that naked girl was hitting him with her shoe
outside Nately's whore's kid sister's room in Rome. Yossarian laughingly
declines, and the next time Orr goes up he again crashes his plane into the
ocean. This time, his survival raft drifts away from the others and disappears.

The men are
dismayed when they learn that General Peckem has had Scheisskopf, now a
colonel, transferred onto his staff. Peckem is pleased because he thinks the
move will increase his strength compared to that of his rival General Dreedle.
Colonel Scheisskopf is dismayed by the news that he will no longer be able to
conduct parades every afternoon. Scheisskopf immediately irritates his
colleagues in Group Headquarters, and Peckem takes him along for an inspection
of Colonel Cathcart's squadron briefing. At the preliminary briefing, the men
are displeased to learn they will be bombing an undefended village into rubble simply
so that Colonel Cathcart can impress General Peckem with the clean aerial
photography their bomb patterns will allow. When Peckem and Scheisskopf arrive,
Cathcart is angry that another colonel has appeared to rival him. He gives the
briefing himself, and though he feels shaky and unconfident, he makes it
through, and congratulates himself on a job well done under pressure.

On the bombing
run, Yossarian flashes back to the mission when Snowden died, and he snaps.
During evasive action, he threatens to kill McWatt if he doesn't follow orders.
He is worried that McWatt will hold a grudge, but after the mission McWatt only
seems concerned about Yossarian. Yossarian has begun seeing Nurse Duckett, and
he enjoys making love to her on the beach. Sometimes, while they sit looking at
the ocean, Yossarian thinks about all the people who have died underwater,
including Orr and Clevinger. One day, McWatt is buzzing the beach in his plane
as a joke, when a gust of wind causes the plane to drop for a split second--just
long enough for the propellor to slice Kid Sampson in half. Kid Samson's body
splatters all over the beach. Back at the base, everyone is occupied with the
disaster; McWatt will not land his plane, but keeps flying higher and higher.
Yossarian runs down the runway yelling at McWatt to come down, but he knows
what McWatt is going to do, and McWatt does it, crashing his plane into the
side of a mountain, killing himself. Colonel Cathcart is so upset that he
raises the number of missions to sixty-five.

When Colonel
Cathcart learns that Doc Daneeka was also killed in the crash, he raises the
number of missions to seventy. Actually, Doc Daneeka was not killed in the
crash, but the records--which Doc Daneeka, hating to fly, bribed Yossarian to
alter--maintain that the doctor was in the plane with McWatt, collecting some
flight time. Doc Daneeka is startled to hear that he is dead, but Doc Daneeka's
wife in America, who receives a letter to that effect from the military, is
shattered. Heroically, she finds the strength to carry on, and is cheered to
learn that she will be receiving a number of monthly payments from various
military departments for the rest of her life, as well as sizable life
insurance payments from her husband's insurance company. Husbands of her
friends begin to flirt with her, and she dies her hair. In Pianosa, Doc Daneeka
finds himself ostracized by the men, who blame him for the raise in the number
of missions they are required to fly. He is no longer allowed to practice
medicine and realizes that, in one sense, he really is dead. He sends a
passionate letter to his wife begging her to alert the authorities that he is
still alive. She considers the possibility, but after receiving a form letter
from Colonel Cathcart expressing regret over her husband's death, she moves her
children to Lansing, Michigan and leaves no forwarding address.

Chapters 32-37

The cold
weather comes, and Kid Sampson's legs are left on the beach; no one will
retrieve them. The first things Yossarian remembers when he wakes up each
morning are Kid Sampson's legs and Snowden. When Orr never returns, Yossarian
is given four new roommates, a group of shiny-faced twenty- one year-olds who
have never seen combat. They clown around, calling Yossarian "Yo-Yo"
and rousing in him a murderous hatred. Yossarian tries to convince Chief White
Halfoat to move in with them and scare the new officers away, but Halfoat has
decided to move into the hospital to die of pneumonia. Slowly, Yossarian begins
to feel more protective toward the men, but then they burn Orr's birch logs and
suddenly move Mudd's belongings out of the tent--the dead man who has lived
there for so long is abruptly gone. Yossarian panics and flees to Rome with
Hungry Joe the night before Nately's whore finally gets a good night's sleep
and wakes up in love.

In Rome,
Yossarian misses Nurse Duckett and goes searching in vain for Luciana. Nately
languishes in bed with his whore, when suddenly Nately's whore's kid sister
dives into bed with them. Nately begins to cherish wild fantasies of moving his
whore and her sister back to America and bringing the sister up like his own
child, but when his whore hears that he no longer wants her to go out hustling
she becomes furious, and an argument ensues. The other men try to intervene, and
Nately tries to convince them that they can all move to the same suburb and
work for his father. He tries to forbid his whore from ever speaking again to
the old man in the whores' hotel, and she becomes even angrier, but she still
misses Nately when he leaves and is furious with Yossarian when he punches
Nately in the face, breaking his nose.

Yossarian
breaks Nately's nose on Thansksgiving, after Milo gets all the men drunk on
bottles of cheap whiskey. Yossarian goes to bed early, but wakes up to the sound
of machine gun fire. At first he is terrified, but he quickly realizes that a
group of men are firing machine guns as a prank. He is furious, and takes his
.45 in pursuit of revenge. Nately tries to stop him, and Yossarian breaks his
nose. He fires at someone in the darkness, but when a return shot comes
Yossarian recognizes it as Dunbar's. He and Dunbar call out to each other, and
go back to help Nately. They cannot find him, and discover him in the hospital
the next morning. Yossarian feels terribly guilty for having broken Nately's
nose. They encounter the chaplain in the hospital; he has lied to get in,
claiming to have a disease called Wisconsin shingles, and feels wonderful--he
has learned how to rationalize vice into virtue. Suddenly the soldier in white
is wheeled into the room, and Dunbar panics; he begins screaming, and soon
everyone in the ward joins in. Nurse Duckett warns Yossarian that she overheard
some doctors talking about how they planned to "disappear" Dunbar.
Yossarian goes to warn his friend, but cannot find him.

When Chief
White Halfoat finally dies of pneumonia and Nately finishes his seventy
missions, Yossarian prays for the first time in his life, asking God to keep
Nately from volunteering to fly more than seventy missions. But Nately does not
want to be sent home until he can take his whore with him. Yossarian goes for
help from Milo, who immediately goes to see Colonel Cathcart about having
himself assigned to more combat missions. Milo has finally been exposed as the
tyrannical fraud he is; he has no intention of giving anyone a real share of
the syndicate--but his power and influence are at their peak and everyone
admires him. He feels guilty for not doing his duty and flying missions, and
asks the deferential Colonel Cathcart to assign him to more dangerous combat
duties. Milo tells Colonel Cathcart that someone else will have to run the
syndicate, and Colonel Cathcart volunteers himself and Colonel Korn. When Milo
explains the complex operations of the business to Cathcart, the colonel declares
Milo the only man who could possibly run it, and forbids Milo from flying
another combat mission. He suggests that he might make the other men fly Milo's
missions for him, and if one of those men wins a medal, Milo will get the
medal. To enable this, he says, he will ratchet the number of required missions
up to eighty. The next morning the alarm sounds and the men fly off on a
mission that turns out to be particularly deadly. Twelve men are killed,
including Dobbs and Nately.

The chaplain is
devastated by Nately's death. When he learns that twelve men have been killed,
he prays that Yossarian, Hungry Joe, Nately, and his other friends will not be
among them. But when he rides out to the field, he understands from the
despairing look on Yossarian's face that Nately is dead. Suddenly, the Chaplain
is dragged away by a group of military police who accuse him of an unspecified
crime. He is interrogated by a colonel who claims the chaplain has forged his
name in letters--his only evidence is a letter Yossarian forged in the hospital
and signed with the chaplain's name some time ago. Then he accuses the chaplain
of stealing the plum tomato from Colonel Cathcart and of being Washington
Irving. The men in the room idiotically find him guilty of unspecified crimes
they assume he has committed, then order him to go about his business while
they think of a way to punish him. The chaplain leaves and furiously goes to
confront Colonel Korn about the number of missions the men are required to fly.
He tells Colonel Korn he plans to bring the matter directly to General
Dreedle's attention, but the colonel replies gleefully that General Dreedle has
been replaced with General Peckem as wing commander. He then tells the chaplain
that he and Colonel Cathcart can make the men fly as many missions as they want
to make them fly--they've even transferred Dr. Stubbs, who had offerred to
ground any man with seventy missions, to the Pacific.

General
Peckem's victory sours quickly. On his first day in charge of General Dreedle's
old operation, he learns that Scheisskopf has been promoted to lieutenant
general and is now the commanding officer for all combat operations: He is in
charge of General Peckem and his entire group. And he intends to make every
single man present march in parades.

Chapters 38-42

Yossarian
marches around backwards so no one can sneak up behind him and refuses to fly
in any more combat missions. When they are informed of this, Colonel Cathcart
and Colonel Korn decide to take brief pity on Yossarian for the death of his
friend Nately, and send him to Rome, where he breaks the news of Nately's death
to Nately's whore, who tries to kill Yossarian with a potato peeler for bringer
her the bad news. When he resists, she tries to seduce him, then stabs at him
with a knife again when he seems to have relaxed. Nately's whore's kid sister
materializes, and tries to stab Yossarian as well. Yossarian loses patience,
picks up Nately's whore's kid sister and throws her bodily at Nately's whore,
then leaves the apartment. He notices people are staring at him, and suddenly
realizes that he has been stabbed several times and is bleeding everywhere. He
goes to a Red Cross building and cleans his wounds, and when he emerges
Nately's whore is waiting in ambush and tries to stab him again. He punches her
in the jaw, catches her as she passes out and sets her down gently. Hungry Joe
flies him back to Pianosa, where Nately's whore is waiting to kill him with a
steak knife. He eludes her, but she continues to try to kill him at every
opportunity. Yossarian walks around backwards; as word spreads that he has
refused to fly more combat missions, men begin to approach him, only at night,
and to ask him if it's true, and to tell him they hope he gets away with it.
One day Captain Black tells him that Nately's whore and her kid sister have
been flushed out of their apartment by M.P.'s, and Yossarian, suddenly worried
about them, goes to Rome without permission to try to find them.

He travels with
Milo, who is disappointed in him for refusing to fly more combat missions. Rome
has been bombed, and lies in ruins; the apartment complex where the whores
lived is a deserted shambles. Nately finds the old woman who lived in the
complex sobbing; she tells Yossarian that the only right the soldiers had to
chase the girls away was the right of Catch-22, which says "they have a
right to do anything we can't stop them from doing." Yossarian asks if
they had Catch-22 written down, and if they showed it to her; she says that the
law stipulates that they don't have to show her Catch-22, and that the law that
says so is Catch-22. She says that the her old man is dead. Yossarian goes to
Milo and says that he will fly as many more combat missions as Colonel Cathcart
wants if Milo uses his influence to help him track down the kid sister. Milo
agrees, but becomes distracted when he learns about huge profits to be made in
trafficking illegal tobacco. He slinks away, and Yossarian is left to wander
the dark streets through a horrible night filled with grotesqueries and
loathsome sights; he returns to his apartments late in the night to find that
Aarfy has raped and killed a maid. The M.P.'s burst in. They apologize to Aarfy
for intruding, and arrest Yossarian for being in Rome without a pass.

Back at
Pianosa, Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn offer Yossarian a deal: they will
allow him never to fly another combat mission and will even send him home, if
only he will agree to like them. He will be promoted to major and all he will
have to do is to make speeches in America in support of the military and the
war effort, and in support of the two colonels in particular. Yossarian
realizes it is a hideous deal and a frank betrayal of the men in his squadron,
who will still have to fly the eighty missions, but he convinces himself to
take the deal anyway, and is filled with joy at the prospect of going home. On
his way out of Colonel Cathcart's office, Nately's whore appears, disguised as
a private, and stabs him until he falls unconscious.

In the
hospital, a group of doctors argues over Yossarian while the fat, angry colonel
who interrogated the chaplain interrogates him. Finally the doctors knock him
out and operate on him; when he awakes, he dimly perceives visits from Aarfy
and the chaplain. He tells the chaplain about his deal with Cathcart and Korn,
then assures him that he isn't going to do it. He vaguely remembers a
malignant, almost supernatural man jeering at him "We've got your
pal" shortly after his operation,. He then and he tells the chaplain that his
"pal" must have been one of his friends who was killed in the war. He
realizes that his only friend still living is Hungry Joe, and but then the
chaplain tells him that Hungry Joe has died--in his sleep, with Huple's cat on
his face. Later, Yossarian wakes up to find a mean-looking man in a hospital
gown leering saying "We've got your pal." He asks who his pal is, and
the man tells Yossarian that he'll find out. Yossarian lunges for him, but the
man glides away and vanishes. He flashes back to the scene of Snowden's death,
which he relives in all its agony--Snowden smiling at him wanly, whimpering
"I'm cold," Yossarian reassuring him and trying to mend the wound
until he opens up Snowden's flak suit and Snowden's insides spill out all over
him. He then --and remembers the secret he had read in those entrails:
"The spirit gone, man is garbage." man is matter, and without the
spirit he will rot like garbage.

In the
hospital, Yossarian tries to explain to Major Danby why he can no longer go
through with the deal with Cathcart and Korn: he won't sell himself so short,
and he won't betray the memory of his dead friends. He tells Danby he plans to
run away, but Danby tells him there is no hope, and he agrees. Suddenly the
chaplain bursts in with the news that Orr has washed ashore in Sweden.
Yossarian realizes that Orr must have planned his escape all along, and
joyfully decides there is hope after all. He has the chaplain retrieve his
uniform, and decides to desert the army and run to Sweden, where he can save
himself from the madness of the war. As he steps outside, Nately's whore tries
to stab him again, and he runs into the distance.

CHARACTERS’
PROFILE

Yossarian - The
protagonist and hero of the novel. Yossarian is a captain in the Air Force and
a lead bombardier in his squadron, but he hates the war. His powerful desire to
live has led him to the conclusion that millions of people are trying to kill
him, and he has decided either to live forever or, ironically, die trying.

Milo
Minderbinder - The fantastically powerful mess officer, Milo controls an
international black market syndicate and is revered in obscure corners all over
the world. He ruthlessly chases after profit and bombs his own men as part of a
contract with Germany. Milo insists that everyone in the squadron will benefit
from being part of the syndicate, and that "everyone has a share."

Colonel
Cathcart - The ambitious, unintelligent colonel in charge of Yossarian's
squadron. Colonel Cathcart wants to be a general, and he tries to impress his
superiors by bravely volunteering his men for dangerous combat duty whenever he
gets the chance. He continually raises the number of combat missions required
of the men before they can be sent home. Colonel Cathcart tries to scheme his
way ahead; he thinks of successful actions as "feathers in his cap"
and unsuccessful ones as "black eyes."

The Chaplain - The timid,
thoughtful chaplain who becomes Yossarian's friend. He is haunted by a sensation
of deja vu and begins to lose his faith in God as the novel progresses.

Hungry Joe - An unhinged
member of Yossarian's squadron. Hungry Joe is obsessed with naked women, and he
has horrible nightmares on nights when he isn't scheduled to fly a combat
mission the next morning.

Nately - A
good-natured nineteen year-old boy in Yossarian's squadron. Nately comes from a
wealthy home, falls in love with a whore, and generally tries to keep Yossarian
from getting into trouble.

Nately's whore - The
beautiful whore Nately falls in love with in Rome. After a good night's sleep,
she falls in love with Nately as well. When Yossarian tells her about Nately's
death, she begins a persistent campaign to ambush Yossarian and stab him to
death.

Clevinger - An
idealistic member of Yossarian's squadron who argues with Yossarian about
concepts such as country, loyalty, and duty, in which Clevinger firmly
believes. Clevinger's plane disappears inside a cloud during the Parma bomb
run, and he is never heard from again.

Doc Daneeka - The medical
officer. Doc Daneeka feels very sorry for himself because the war interrupted
his lucrative private practice in the States, and he refuses to listen to other
people's problems. Doc Daneeka is the first person to explain Catch-22 to
Yossarian.

Dobbs - A co-pilot,
Dobbs seizes the controls from Huple during the mission to Avignon, the same
mission on which Snowden dies. Dobbs later develops a plan to murder Colonel
Cathcart, and eventually awaits only Yossarian's go-ahead to put it in action.

McWatt - A cheerful,
polite pilot who often pilots Yossarian's planes. McWatt likes to joke around
with Yossarian, and sometimes buzzes the squadron. One day he accidentally
flies in too low, and slices Kid Sampson in half with his propellor; he then
commits suicide by flying his plane into a mountain.

Major - The supremely
mediocre squadron commander. Born Major Major Major, he is promoted to major on
his first day in the army by a mischievous computer. Major Major is painfully
awkward, and will only see people in his office when he isn't there.

Aarfy - Yossarian's
navigator. Aarfy infuriates Yossarian by pretending he cannot hear Yossarian's
orders during bomb runs. Toward the end of the novel, Aarfy stuns Yossarian
when he rapes and murders the maid of the officers' apartments in Rome.

Orr - Yossarian's
often maddening roommate. Orr almost always crashes his plane or is shot down
on combat missions, but he always seems to survive.

Appleby - A handsome,
athletic member of the squadron and a superhuman ping-pong player. Orr enigmatically
says that Appleby has flies in his eyes.

Captain Black - The
squadron's bitter intelligence officer. He wants nothing more than to be
squadron commander. Captain Black exults in the men's discomfort and does
everything he can increase it; when Nately falls in love with a whore in Rome,
Captain Black begins to buy her services regularly just to taunt him.

Colonel Korn - Colonel
Cathcart's wily, cynical sidekick.

Major de
Coverley - The fierce, intense executive officer for the squadron. Major
----- de Coverley is revered and feared by the men--they are even afraid to ask
his first name-- though all he does is play horseshoes and rent apartments for
the officers in cities taken by American forces. When Yossarian moves the bomb
line on a map to make it appear that Bologna has been captured, Major ----- de
Coverely disappears in Bologna trying to rent an officers' apartment.

Major Danby - The timid
operations officer. Before the war, he was a college professor; now, he does
his best for his country. In the end, he helps Yossarian escape.

General Dreedle - The grumpy
old general in charge of the wing in which Yossarian's squadron is placed.
General Dreedle is the victim of a private war waged against him by the
ambitious General Peckem.

Nurse Duckett - A nurse in
the Pianosa hospital who becomes Yossarian's lover.

Dunbar - Yossarian's
friend, the only other person who seems to understand that there is a war going
on. Dunbar has decided to live as long as possible by making time pass as
slowly as possible, so he treasures boredom and discomfort. He is mysteriously
"disappeared" as part of a conspiracy toward the end of the novel.

Chief White
Halfoat - An alcoholic Indian from Oklahoma who has decided to die of
pneumonia.

Havermeyer - A fearless
lead bombardier. Havermeyer never takes evasive action, and he enjoys shooting
field mice at night.

Huple - A fifteen
year-old pilot; the pilot on the mission to Avignon on which Snowden is killed.
Huple is Hungry Joe's roommate, and his cat likes to sleep on Hungry Joe's
face.

Washington
Irving - A famous American author whose name Yossarian signs to letters
during one of his many stays in the hospital. Eventually, military intelligence
believes Washington Irving to be the name of a covert insubordinate, and two
C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Division) men are dispatched to ferret him out
of the squadron.

Luciana - A beautiful
girl Yossarian meets, sleeps with, and falls in love with during a brief period
in Rome.

Mudd - Generally
referred to as "the dead man in Yossarian's tent," Mudd was a squadron
member who was killed in action before he could be processed as an official
member of the squadron. As a result, he is listed as never having arrived, and
no one has the authority to move his belongings out of Yossarian's tent.

Lieutenant
Scheisskopf - Later Colonel Scheisskopf and eventually General Scheisskopf. He
helps train Yossarian's squadron in America and shows an unsettling passion for
elaborate military parades. ("Scheisskopf" is German for
"shithead.")

The Soldier in
White - A body completely covered with bandages in Yossarian and
Dunbar's ward in the Pianosa hospital.

Snowden - The young
gunner whose death over Avignon shattered Yossarian's courage and opened his
eyes to the madness of the war. Snowden died in Yossarian's arms with his entrails
splattered all over Yossarian's uniform, a trauma which is gradually revealed
throughout the novel.

Corporal
Whitcomb - Later Sergeant Whitcomb, the chaplain's atheist assistant.
Corporal Whitcomb hates the chaplain for holding back his career, and makes the
chaplain a suspect in the Washington Irving scandal.

ex-P.F.C.
Wintergreen - The mail clerk at the Twenty-Seventh Air Force Headquarters,
Wintergreen is able to intercept and forge documents, and thus wields enormous
power in the Air Force. He continually goes AWOL (Absent Without Leave), and is
continually punished with loss of rank.

General Peckem - The
ambitious special operations general who plots incessantly to take over General
Dreedle's position.

Kid Sampson - A pilot in
the squadron. Kid Sampson is sliced in half by McWatt's propeller when McWatt
jokingly buzzes the beach with his plane.

Flume - Chief White
Halfoat's old roommate who is so afraid of having his throat slit while he
sleeps that he has taken to living in the forest.

Dori Duz - A friend of
Scheisskopf's wife. Together, they sleep with all the men training under him
while he is stationed in the U.S.

The Catcher in
the Rye

Chapter
One:

The
Catcher in the Rye begins with the statement by the narrator, Holden Caulfield,
that he will not tell about his "lousy" childhood and "all that
David Copperfield kind of crap" because such details bore him. He
describes his parents as nice, but "touchy as hell." Instead, Holden
vows to tell about what happened to him around last Christmas, before he had to
take it easy. He also mentions his brother, D.B., who is nearby in Hollywood
"being a prostitute." Holden was a student at Pencey Prep in
Agerstown, Pennsylvania, and he mocks their advertisements, which claim to have
been molding boys into clear-thinking young men since 1888. Holden begins his
story during the Saturday of the football game with Saxon Hall, which was
supposed to be a very big deal at Pencey. Selma Thurmer, the daughter of the
headmaster, is at the game. Although she is unattractive and a bit pathetic, to
Holden she seems nice enough, for she does not lavish praise upon her father.
Holden, the manager of the fencing team, had just returned from New York with
the team. Although they were supposed to have a meet with the McBurney School,
Holden left the foils on the subway. The fencing team was angry at Holden, but
he thought the entire event was funny in a way. Holden does not attend the
football game, instead choosing to say goodbye to Spencer, his history teacher,
who knew that Holden was not coming back to Pencey. Holden had recently been
expelled for failing four classes.

Chapter
Two:

Holden
finds the Spencer's house somewhat depressing, smelling of Vicks Nose Drops and
clearly indicating the old age of its inhabitants. Mr. Spencer sits in a ratty
old bathrobe, and asks Holden to sit down. Holden tells him how Dr. Thurmer
told him about how "life is a game" and you should "play it
according to the rules" when he expelled him. Mr. Spencer tells him that
Dr. Thurmer was correct, and Holden agrees with him, but thinks instead that
life is only a game if you are on the right side. Holden tells Mr. Spencer that
his parents will be upset, for this is his fourth private school so far. Holden
tells that, at sixteen, he is over six feet tall and has some gray hair, but
still acts like a child, as others often tell him. Spencer says that he met
with Holden's parents, who are "grand" people, but Holden dismisses
that word as "phony." Spencer then tells Holden that he failed him in
History because he knew nothing, and even reads his exam essay about the
Egyptians to him. At the end of the exam, Holden left a note for Mr. Spencer,
admitting that he is not interested in the Egyptians, despite Spencer's
interesting lectures, and that he will accept if Mr. Spencer fails him. As
Holden and Mr. Spencer continue to talk, Holden's mind wanders; he thinks about
ice skating in Central Park. When Mr. Spencer asks why Holden quit Elkton
Hills, he tells Mr. Spencer that it is a long story, but explains in narration
that the people there were phonies. He mentions the particular quality of the
headmaster, Mr. Haas, who would be charming toward everyone but the
"funny-looking parents." Holden claims he has little interest in the
future, and assures Mr. Spencer that he is just going through a phase. As
Holden leaves, he hears Mr. Spencer say "good luck," a phrase that he
particularly loathes.

Chapter
Three:

Holden
claims that he is the most terrific liar one could meet. He admits that he lied
to Spencer by telling him that he had to go to the gym. At Pencey, Holden lives
in the Ossenburger Memorial Wing of the new dorms. Ossenburger is a wealthy
undertaker who graduated from the school; Holden tells how false Ossenburger
seemed when he gave a speech exalting faith in Jesus and how another student
farted during the ceremony. Holden returns to his room, where he puts on a red
hunting hat they he bought in New York. Holden discusses the books that he
likes to read: he prefers Ring Lardner, but is now reading Dinesen's Out of
Africa. Ackley, a student whose room is connected to Holden's, barges in on
Holden. Holden describes Ackley as having a terrible personality and an even
worse complexion. Holden tries to ignore him, then pretends that he is blind to
annoy Ackley. Ackley cuts his nails right in front of Holden, and asks about
Ward Stradlater, Holden's roommate. Ackley claims that he hates Stradlater,
that "goddamn sonuvabitch," but Holden tells Ackley that he hates
Stradlater for the simple reason that Stradlater told him that he should actually
brush his teeth. Holden defends Stradlater, claiming that he is conceited, but
still generous. Stradlater arrives, and is friendly to Holden (in a phony sort
of way), and asks to borrow a jacket from Holden. Stradlater walks around
shirtless to show off his build.

Chapter
Four:

Since
he has nothing else to do, Holden goes down to the bathroom to chat with
Stradlater as he shaves. Stradlater, in comparison to Ackley, is a
"secret" slob, who would always shave with a rusty razor that he
would never clean. Stradlater is a "Yearbook" kind of handsome guy.
He asks Holden to write a composition for him for English. Holden realizes the
irony that he is flunking out of Pencey, yet is still asked to do work for
others. Stradlater insists, however, that Holden not write it too well, for
Hartzell knows that Holden is a hot-shot in English. On an impulse, Holden
gives Stradlater a half nelson, which greatly annoys Stradlater. Stradlater
talks about his date that night with Jane Gallagher. Although he cannot even
get her name correct, Holden knows her well, for she lived next door to him
several summers ago and they would play checkers together. Stradlater barely
listens as he fixes his hair with Holden's gel. Holden asks Stradlater not to
tell Jane that he got kicked out. He then borrows Holden's hound's-tooth jacket
and leaves. Ackley returns, and Holden is actually glad to see him, for he
takes his mind off of other matters.

Chapter
Five:

On
Saturday nights at Pencey the students are served steak; Holden believes this
occurs because parents visit on Sunday and students can thus tell them that
they had steak for dinner the previous night, as if it were a common
occurrence. Holden goes with Ackley and Mal Brossard into New York City to see
a movie, but since Ackley and Brossard had both seen that particular Cary Grant
comedy, they play pinball and get hamburgers instead. When they return, Ackley
remains in Holden's room, telling about a girl he had sex with, but Holden
knows that he is lying, for whenever he tells that same story, the details
always change. Holden tells him to leave so that he can write Stradlater's
composition. He writes about his brother Allie's baseball mitt. Allie, born two
years after Holden, died of leukemia in 1946. The night that Allie died, Holden
broke all of the windows in his garage with his fist.

Chapter
Six:

Stradlater
returned late that night, thanked Holden for the jacket and asked if he did the
composition for him. When Stradlater reads it, he gets upset at Holden, for it
is simply about a baseball glove. Since Stradlater is upset, Holden tears up
the composition. Holden starts smoking, just to annoy Stradlater. Holden asks
about the date, but Stradlater doesn't give very much information, only that
they spent most of the time in Ed Banky's car. Finally he asks if Stradlater
"gave her the time" there. Stradlater says that the answer is a
"professional secret," and Holden responds by trying to punch
Stradlater. Stradlater pushes him down and sits with his knees on Holden's
chest. He only lets Holden go when he agrees to say nothing more about
Stradlater's date. When he calls Stradlater a moron, he knocks Holden out.
Holden then goes to the bathroom to wash the blood off his face. Even though he
claims to be a pacifist, Holden enjoys the look of blood on his face.

Chapter
Seven:

Ackley,
who was awakened by the fight, comes in Holden's room to ask what happened. He
tells Holden that he is still bleeding and should put something on his wounds.
Holden asks if he can sleep in Ackley's room that night, since his roommate is
away for the weekend, but Ackley says that he can't give him permission. Holden
feels so lonesome that he wishes he were dead. Holden worries that Stradlater
had sex with Jane during their date, because he knew that Stradlater was
capable of seducing girls quickly. Holden asks Ackley whether or not one has to
be Catholic to join a monastery. He then decides to leave Pencey immediately.
He decides to take a room in a hotel in New York and take it easy until
Wednesday. He packs ice skates that his mother had just sent him. The skates
make him sad, because they are not the kind that he wanted. According to
Holden, his mother has a way of making him sad whenever he receives a present.
Holden wakes up Woodruff, a wealthy student, and sells him his typewriter for
twenty bucks. Before he leaves, he yells "Sleep tight, ya morons."

Chapter
Eight:

Since
it is too late to call a cab, Holden walks to the train station. On the train,
a woman gets on at Trenton and sits right beside him, even though the train is
nearly empty. She strikes up a conversation with him, noticing the Pencey
sticker on his suitcase, and says that her son, Ernest Morrow, goes to Pencey
as well. Holden remembers him as "the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey."
Holden tells her that his name is Rudolf Schmidt, the name of the Pencey
janitor. Holden lies to Mrs. Morrow, pretending that he likes Pencey and that
he is good friends with Ernest. She thinks that her son is Œsensitive,' an idea
that Holden finds laughable, but Holden continues to tell lies about Ernest,
such as that he would have been elected class president, but he was too modest
to accept the nomination. Holden asks if she would like to join him for a
cocktail in the club car. Finally, he tells her that he is leaving Pencey early
because he has to have an operation; he claims he has a tumor on his brain.
When she invites Holden to visit during the summer, he says that he will be
spending the summer in South America with his grandmother.

Chapter
Nine:

When
Holden reaches New York, he does not know whom to call. He considers calling
his kid sister, Phoebe, but she would be asleep and his parents would overhear.
He also considers calling Jane Gallagher or Sally Hayes, another friend, but
finally does not call anybody. He gets into a cab and absentmindedly gives the
driver his home address, but soon realizes that he does not want to get home.
He goes to the Edmond Hotel instead, where he stays in a shabby room. He looks
out of the window and could see the other side of the hotel. From this view he
can see other rooms; in one of them, a man takes off his clothes and puts on
ladies' clothing, while in another a man and a woman spit their drinks at one
another. Holden thinks that he's the "biggest sex maniac you ever saw,"
but then claims that he does not understand sex at all. He then thinks of
calling Jane Gallagher but again decides against it, and instead considers
calling a woman named Faith Cavendish, who was formerly a burlesque stripper
and is not quite a prostitute. When he calls her, he continues to ask whether
or not they could get a drink together, but she turns him down at every
opportunity.

Chapter
Ten:

Holden
describes more about his family in this chapter. His sister Phoebe is the
smartest little kid that he has ever met, and Holden himself is the only dumb
one. Phoebe reminds Holden of Allie in physical appearance, but she is very
emotional. She writes books about Hazle Weatherfield, a girl detective. Holden
goes down to the Lavender Room, a nightclub in the hotel. The band there is
putrid and the people are mostly old. When he attempts to order a drink, the
waiter asks for identification, but since he does not have proof of his age, he
begs the waiter to put rum in his Coke. Holden "gives the eye" to
three women at another table, in particular a blonde one. He asks the blonde
one to dance, and Holden judges her to be an excellent dancer, but a moron.
Holden is offended when the woman, Bernice Krebs, asks his age and when he uses
profanity in front of her. He tells these women, who are visiting from Seattle,
that his name is Jim Steele. Since they keep mentioning how they saw Peter
Lorre that day, Holden claims that he just saw Gary Cooper, who just left the
Lavender Room. Holden thinks that the women are sad for wanting to go to the
first show at Radio City Music Hall.

Chapter
Eleven:

Upon
leaving the Lavender Room, Holden begins to think of Jane Gallagher and worries
that Stradlater seduced her. Holden met Jane when his mother became irritated
that the Gallagher's Doberman pinscher relieved itself on their lawn. Several
days later, he introduced himself to her, but it took some time before he could
convince her that he didn't care what their dog did. Holden reminisces about
Jane's smile, and admits that she is the only person whom he showed Allie's
baseball mitt. The one time that he and Jane did anything sexual together was
after she had a fight with Mr. Cudahy, her father-in-law. Holden suspected that
he had tried to "get wise with" Jane. Holden decides to go to Ernie's,
a nightclub in Greenwich village that D.B. used to frequent before he went to
Hollywood.

Chapter
Twelve:

In
the cab to Ernie's, Holden chats with Horwitz, the cab driver. He asks what
happens to the ducks in Central Park during the winter, but the two get into an
argument when Horwitz thinks that Holden's questions are stupid. Ernie's is
filled with prep school and college jerks, as Holden calls them. Holden notices
a Joe Yale-looking guy with a beautiful girl; he is telling the girl how a guy
in his dorm nearly committed suicide. A former girlfriend of Holden's brother,
D.B., recognizes him. The girl, Lillian Simmons, asks about D.B. and introduces
Holden to a Navy commander she is dating. Holden notices how she blocks the
aisle in the place as she drones on about how handsome Holden has become.
Rather than spend time with Lillian Simmons, Holden leaves.

Chapter
Thirteen:

Holden
walks back to his hotel, although it is forty-one blocks away. He considers how
he would confront a person who had stolen his gloves. Although he would not do
so aggressively, he wishes that he could threaten the person who stole them.
Holden finally concludes that he would yell at the thief but not have the
courage to hit him. Holden reminisces about drinking with Raymond Goldfarb at
Whooton. While back at the hotel, Maurice the elevator man asks Holden if he is
interested in a little tail tonight. He offers a prostitute for five dollars.
When she arrives, she does not believe that he is twenty-two, as he claims.
Holden finally tells the prostitute, Sunny, that he just had an operation on
his clavichord, as an excuse not to have sex. She is angry, but he still pays
her, even though they argue over the price. He gives her five dollars, although
she demands ten.

Chapter
Fourteen:

After
the prostitute leaves, Holden sits in a chair and talks aloud to his brother
Allie, which he often does whenever he is depressed. Finally he gets in bed and
feels like praying, although he is "sort of an atheist." He claims
that he likes Jesus, but the Disciples annoy him. Other than Jesus, the
Biblical character he likes best is the lunatic who lived in the tombs and cut
himself with stones. Holden tells that his parents disagree on religion and
none of his siblings attend church. Maurice and Sunny knock on the door,
demanding more money. Holden argues with Maurice and threatens to call the
cops, but Maurice says that his parents would find out that he spent the night
with a whore. As Holden starts to cry, Sunny takes the money from his wallet.
Maurice punches him in the stomach before leaving. After Maurice is gone,
Holden imagines that he had taken a bullet and would shoot Maurice in the
stomach. Holden feels like committing suicide by jumping out the window, but he
wouldn't want people looking at his gory body on the sidewalk.

Chapter
Fifteen:

Holden
calls Sally Hayes, who goes to the Mary A. Woodruff School. According to
Holden, Sally seems quite intelligent because she knows a good deal about the
theater and literature, but is actually quite stupid. He makes a date to meet
Sally for a matinee, but she continues to chat with Holden on the phone despite
his lack of interest. Holden tells that his father is a wealthy corporation
attorney and his mother has not been healthy since Allie died. At Grand Central
Station, where Holden checks in his bags after leaving the hotel, he sees two
nuns with cheap suitcases. Holden reminisces about his roommate at Elkton
Hills, Dick Slagle who had cheap suitcases and would complain about how
everything was bourgeois. He chats with the nuns and gives them a donation. He
wonders what nuns think about sex when he discusses Romeo and Juliet with them.

Chapter
Sixteen:

Before
meeting Sally Hayes, Holden goes to find a record called "Little Shirley
Beans" for Phoebe by Estelle Fletcher. As he walks through the city, he
hears a poor kid playing with his parents, singing the song "If a body
catch a body coming through the rye." Hearing the song makes Holden feel
less depressed. Holden buys tickets for I Know My Love, a play starring the
Lunts. He knew that Sally would enjoy it, for it was supposed to be very sophisticated.
Holden goes to the Mall, where Phoebe usually plays when she is in the park,
and sees a couple of kids playing there. He asks if any of them know Phoebe.
They do, and claim that she is probably in the Museum of Natural History. He
reminisces about going to the Museum when he was in grade school. He remembers
how he would go there often with his class, but while the exhibits would be
exactly the same, he would be different each time. Holden considers going to
the museum to see Phoebe, but instead goes to the Biltmore for his date with
Sally.

Chapter
Seventeen:

Holden
meets Sally at the Biltmore, and when he sees her he immediately feels like
marrying her, even though he doesn't particularly like her. After the play,
when Sally keeps mentioning that she thinks she knows people she sees, Holden
replies "Why don't you go on over and give him a big soul kiss, if you
know him? He'll enjoy it." Finally, Sally does go to talk to the boy she
knows, George from Andover. Holden notes how phony the conversation between
Sally and George is. Holden and Sally go ice skating at Radio City, then to
eat. Sally asks Holden if he is coming over to help her trim the Christmas tree.
Holden asks her if she ever gets fed up. He tells her that he hates everything:
taxicabs, living in New York, phony guys who call the Lunts angels. Sally tells
him not to shout. He tells her that she is the only reason that he is in New
York right now. If not for her, he would be in the woods, he claims. He
complains about the cliques at boarding schools, and tells her that he's in
lousy shape. He suggests that they borrow a car from a friend in Greenwich
Village and drive up to New England where they can stay in a cabin camp until
their money runs out. They could get married and live in the woods. Sally tells
him that the idea is foolish, for they are both practically children who would
starve to death. She tells him that they will have a lot of time to do those
things after college and marriage, but he claims that there wouldn't be
"oodles" of places to go, for it would be entirely different. He
calls her a "royal pain in the ass," and she starts to cry. Holden
feels somewhat guilty, and realizes that he doesn't even know where he got the
idea about going to New England.

Chapter
Eighteen:

Holden
once again considers giving Jane a call to invite her to go dancing. He
remembers how she danced with Al Pike from Choate. Although Holden thought that
he was "all muscles and no brains," Jane claimed that he had an
inferiority complex and felt sorry for him. Holden thinks that girls divide
guys into two types, no matter what their personality: a girl will justify bad
behavior as part of an inferiority complex for those she likes, while claim
those that she doesn't like are conceited. Holden calls Carl Luce, a friend
from the Whooton School who goes to Columbia, and plans to meet him that night.
He then goes to the movies and is annoyed when a woman beside him becomes too
emotional. The movie is a war film, which makes Holden think about D.B.'s
experience in the war. He hated the army, but had Holden read A Farewell to
Arms, which in Holden's view celebrates soldiers. Holden thinks that if there
is a war, he is glad that the atomic bomb has been invented, for he would
volunteer to sit right on top of it.

Chapter
Nineteen:

Holden
meets Carl Luce at the Wicker Bar. Carl Luce used to gossip about people who
were "flits" (homosexuals) and would tell which actors were actually
gay. Holden claims that Carl was a bit "flitty" himself. When Carl
arrives, he asks Holden when he is going to grow up, and is not amused by
Holden's jokes. Carl is annoyed that he is having a "typical Caulfield
conversation" about sex. Carl admits that he is seeing an older woman in
the Village who is a sculptress from China. Holden asks questions that are too
personal about Carl's sex life with his girlfriend until Carl insists that he
drop the subject. Carl reminds him that the last time he saw Holden he told him
to see his father, a psychiatrist.

Chapter
Twenty:

Holden
remains in the Wicker Bar getting drunk. He continues to pretend that he has
been shot. Finally, he calls Sally, but her grandmother answers and asks why he
is calling so late. Finally, Sally gets on the phone and realizes that Holden
is drunk. In the restroom of the Wicker Bar, he talks to the
"flitty-looking" guy, asking if he will see the "Valencia
babe" who performs there, but he tells Holden to go home. Holden finally
leaves. As he walks home, Holden drops Phoebe's record and nearly starts to
cry. He goes to Central Park and sits down on a bench. He thinks that he will
get pneumonia and imagines his funeral. He is reassured that his parents won't
let Phoebe come to his funeral because he is too young. He thinks about what
Phoebe would feel if he got pneumonia and died, and figures that he should
sneak home and see her, in case he did die.

Chapter
Twenty-One:

Holden
returns home, where he is very quiet as not to awake his parents. Phoebe is
asleep in D.B.'s room. He sits down at D.B.'s desk and looks at Phoebe's stuff,
such as her math book, where she has the name "Phoebe Weatherfield
Caulfield" written on the first page (her middle name is actually
Josephine). He wakes up Phoebe and hugs her. She tells about how she is playing
Benedict Arnold in her school play. She tells about how she saw a movie called
The Doctor, and how their parents are out for the night. Holden shows Phoebe
the broken record, and admits that he got kicked out. She tells him that
"Daddy's going to kill you," but Holden says that he is going away to
a ranch in Colorado. Phoebe places a pillow over her head and refuses to talk
to Holden.

Chapter
Twenty-Two:

Phoebe
tells Holden that she thinks his scheme to go out to Colorado is foolish, and
asks why he failed out of yet another school. He claims that Pencey is full of
phonies. He tells her about how everyone excluded Robert Ackley as a sign of
how phony the students are. Holden admits that there were a couple of nice
teachers, including Mr. Spencer, but then complains about the Veterans' Day
ceremonies. Phoebe tells Holden that he doesn't like anything that happens. She
asks Holden for one thing that he likes a lot. He thinks of two things. The
first is the nuns at Grand Central. The second is a boy at Elkton Hills named
James Castle, who had a fight with a conceited guy named Phil Stabile. He
threatened James, who responded by jumping out the window, killing himself.
However, he tells Phoebe that he likes Allie, and he likes talking to Phoebe
right now. Holden tells Phoebe that he would like to be a catcher in the rye:
he pictures a lot of children playing in a big field of rye around the edge of
a cliff. Holden imagines that he would catch them if they started to go over
the cliff. Holden decides to call up Mr. Antolini, a former teacher at Elkton
Hills who now teaches English at NYU.

Chapter
Twenty-Three:

Holden
tells that Mr. Antolini was his English teacher at Elkton Hills and was the
person who carried James Castle to the infirmary. Holden and Phoebe dance to
the radio, but their parents come home and Holden hides in the closet. When he
believes that it is safe, Holden asks Phoebe for money and she gives him eight
dollars and change. He starts to cry as he prepares to leave, which frightens
Phoebe. He gives Phoebe his hunting hat and tells her that he will give her a
call.

Chapter
Twenty-Four:

Mr.
Antolini had married an older woman who shared similar intellectual interests.
When he arrives at his apartment, Holden finds Mr. Antolini in a bathrobe and
slippers, drinking a highball. Holden and Mr. Antolini discuss Pencey, and
Holden tells how he failed Oral Expression (debate). He tells Holden how he had
lunch with his father, who told him that Holden was cutting classes and
generally unprepared. He warns Holden that he is riding for some kind of
terrible fall. He says that it may be the kind where, at the age of thirty, he
sits in some bar hating everyone who comes in looking as if he played football
in college or hating people who use improper grammar. He tells Holden that the
fall that he is riding for is a special and horrible kind, and that he can see
Holden dying nobly for some highly unworthy cause. He gives Holden a quote from
the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel: "The mark of the immature man is that he
wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he
wants to live humbly for one." He finally tells Holden that once he gets
past the things that annoy him, he will be able to find the kind of information
that will be dear to his heart. Holden goes to sleep, and wakes up to find Mr.
Antolini's hand on his head. He tells Holden that he is "simply sitting
here, admiring‹" but Holden interrupts him, gets dressed and leaves,
claiming that he has to get his bags from Grand Central Station and he will be
back soon.

Chapter
Twenty-Five:

When
Holden gets outside, it is getting light out. He walks over to Lexington to
take the subway to Grand Central, where he slept that night. He thinks about
how Mr. Antolini will explain Holden's departure to his wife. Holden feels some
regret that he didn't come back to the Antolini's apartment. Holden starts
reading a magazine at Grand Central; when he reads an article about hormones,
he begins to worry about hormones, and worries about cancer when he reads about
cancer. As Holden walks down Fifth Avenue, he feels that he will not get to the
other side of the street each time he comes to the end of a block. He feels
that he would just go down. He makes believe that he is with Allie every time
he reaches a curb. Holden decides that he will go away, never go home again and
never go to another prep school. He thinks he will pretend to be a deaf-mute so
that he won't have to deal with stupid conversations. Holden goes to Phoebe's
school to find her and say goodbye. At the school he sees "fuck you"
written on the wall, and becomes enraged as he tries to scratch it off. He
writes her a note asking her to meet him near the Museum of Art so that he can
return her money. While waiting for Phoebe at the Museum, Holden chats with two
brothers who talk about mummies. He sees another "fuck you" written
on the wall, and is convinced that someone will write that below the name on
his tombstone. Holden, suffering from diarrhea, goes to the bathroom, and as he
exits the bathroom he passes out. When he regains consciousness, he feels
better. Phoebe arrives, wearing Holden's hunting hat and dragging Holden's old
suitcase. She tells him that she wants to come with him. She begs, but he refuses
and causes her to start crying. She throws the red hunting hat back at Holden
and starts to walk away. She follows Holden to the zoo, but refuses to talk to
him or get near him. He buys Phoebe a ticket for the carousel there, and
watches her go around on it as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" plays.
Afterwards, she takes back the red hunting hat and goes back on the carousel.
As it starts to rain, Holden cries while watching Phoebe.

Chapter
Twenty-Six:

Holden
ends his story there. He refuses to tell what happened after he went home and
how he got sick. He says that people are concerned about whether he will apply
himself next year. He tells that D.B. visits often, and he often misses
Stradlater, Ackley, and even Maurice. However, he advises not to tell anybody
anything, because it is this that causes a person to start missing others.

The first son of Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a doctor, and Grace
Hall Hemingway, Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in a suburb of Chicago. He was
educated in the public schools and began to write in high school, where he was
active and outstanding, but the parts of his boyhood that mattered most were
summers spent with his family on Walloon Lake in upper Michigan. On graduation from
high school in 1917, impatient for a less sheltered environment, he did not
enter college but went to Kansas City, where he was employed as a reporter for
the Star. He was repeatedly rejected for military service because of a
defective eye, but he managed to enter World War I as an ambulance driver for
the American Red Cross. On July 8, 1918, not yet 19 years old, he was injured
on the Austro-Italian front at Fossalta di Piave. Decorated for heroism and
hospitalized in Milan, he fell in love with a Red Cross nurse, Agnes von
Kurowsky, who declined to marry him. These were experiences he was never to
forget.

After
recuperating at home, Hemingway renewed his efforts at writing, for a while
worked at odd jobs in Chicago, and sailed for France as a foreign correspondent
for the Toronto Star. Advised and encouraged by other American writers in
Paris--F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound--he began to see his
nonjournalistic work appear in print there, and in 1923 his first important
book, a collection of stories called In Our Time, was published in New York
City. In 1926 he published The Sun Also Rises, a novel with which he scored his
first solid success. A pessimistic but sparkling book, it deals with a group of
aimless expatriates in France and Spain--members of the postwar "lost
generation," a phrase that Hemingway scorned while making it famous. This
work also introduced him to the limelight, which he both craved and resented
for the rest of his life. Hemingway's The Torrents of Spring, a parody of the
American writer Sherwood Anderson's book Dark Laughter, also appeared in
1926.The writing of books occupied him for most of the postwar years. He
remained based in Paris, but he traveled widely for the skiing, bullfighting,
fishing, or hunting that by then had become part of his life and formed the
background for much of his writing. His position as a master of short fiction
had been advanced by Men Without Women in 1927 and thoroughly established with
the stories in Winner Take Nothing in 1933.

Among his
finest stories are "The Killers," "The Short Happy Life of
Francis Macomber," and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." At least in
the public view, however, the novel A Farewell to Arms (1929) overshadowed such
works. Reaching back to his experience as a young soldier in Italy, Hemingway
developed a grim but lyrical novel of great power, fusing love story with war
story. While serving with the Italian ambulance service during World War I, the
American lieutenant Frederic Henry falls in love with the English nurse
Catherine Barkley, who tends him during his recuperation after being wounded.
She becomes pregnant by him, but he must return to his post. Henry deserts
during the Italians' disastrous retreat after the Battle of Caporetto, and the
reunited couple flee Italy by crossing the border into Switzerland. There,
however, Catherine and her baby die during childbirth, leaving Henry desolate
at the loss of the great love of his life.

Hemingway's love of Spain and his passion for bullfighting
resulted in Death in the Afternoon (1932), a learned study of a spectacle he
saw more as tragic ceremony than as sport. Similarly, a safari he took in
1933-34 in the big-game region of Tanganyika resulted in The Green Hills of
Africa (1935), an account of big-game hunting. Mostly for the fishing, he
bought a house in Key West, Florida, and bought his own fishing boat. A minor
novel of 1937 called To Have and Have Not is about a Caribbean desperado and is
set against a background of lower-class violence and upper-class decadence in
Key West during the Great Depression.By now Spain was in the midst of civil
war. Still deeply attached to that country, Hemingway made four trips there,
once more a correspondent. He raised money for the Republicans in their
struggle against the Nationalists under General Francisco Franco, and he wrote
a play called The Fifth Column (1938), which is set in besieged Madrid. As in
many of his books, the protagonist of the play is based on the author.
Following his last visit to the Spanish war he purchased Finca Vigia
("Lookout Farm"), an unpretentious estate outside Havana, Cuba, and
went to cover another war--the Japanese invasion of China.

The harvest of Hemingway's considerable experience of Spain in war
and peace was the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), a substantial and
impressive work that some critics consider his finest novel, in preference to A
Farewell to Arms. It was also the most successful of all his books as measured
in sales. Set during the Spanish Civil War, it tells of Robert Jordan, an
American volunteer who is sent to join a guerrilla band behind the Nationalist
lines in the Guadarrama Mountains. Most of the novel concerns Jordan's
relations with the varied personalities of the band, including the girl Maria,
with whom he falls in love. Through dialogue, flashbacks, and stories,
Hemingway offers telling and vivid profiles of the Spanish character and
unsparingly depicts the cruelty and inhumanity stirred up by the civil war.
Jordan's mission is to blow up a strategic bridge near Segovia in order to aid
a coming Republican attack, which he realizes is doomed to fail. In an
atmosphere of impending disaster, he blows up the bridge but is wounded and
makes his retreating comrades leave him behind, where he prepares a last-minute
resistance to his Nationalist pursuers.All of his life Hemingway was fascinated
by war--in A Farewell to Arms he focused on its pointlessness, in For Whom the
Bell Tolls on the comradeship it creates--and as World War II progressed he
made his way to London as a journalist. He flew several missions with the Royal
Air Force and crossed the English Channel with American troops on D-Day (June
6, 1944).

Attaching himself to the 22nd Regiment of the 4th Infantry
Division, he saw a good deal of action in Normandy and in the Battle of the
Bulge. He also participated in the liberation of Paris and, although ostensibly
a journalist, he impressed professional soldiers not only as a man of courage
in battle but also as a real expert in military matters, guerrilla activities,
and intelligence collection.Following the war in Europe, Hemingway returned to
his home in Cuba and began to work seriously again. He also traveled widely,
and on a trip to Africa he was injured in a plane crash. Soon after (in 1953),
he received the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Old Man and the Sea (1952), a
short, heroic novel about an old Cuban fisherman who, after an extended
struggle, hooks and boats a giant marlin only to have it eaten by voracious
sharks during the long voyage home.

This book, which played a role in gaining for Hemingway the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1954, was as enthusiastically praised as his previous
novel, Across the River and into the Trees (1950), the story of a professional
army officer who dies while on leave in Venice, had been damned.By 1960 Fidel
Castro's revolution had driven Hemingway from Cuba. He settled in Ketchum,
Idaho, and tried to lead his life and do his work as before. For a while he
succeeded, but, anxiety-ridden and depressed, he was twice hospitalized at the
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he received electroshock treatments.
Two days after his return to the house in Ketchum, he took his life with a
shotgun. Hemingway had married four times and fathered three sons.He left
behind a substantial amount of manuscript, some which has been published. A
Moveable Feast, an entertaining memoir of his years in Paris (1921-26) before
he was famous, was issued in 1964. Islands in the Stream, three closely related
novellas growing directly out of his peacetime memories of the Caribbean island
of Bimini, of Havana during World War II, and of searching for U-boats off
Cuba, appeared in 1970.Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and
view of life.

The main characters of The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and
For Whom the Bell Tolls are young men whose strength and self-confidence
nevertheless coexist with a sensitivity that leaves them deeply scarred by
their wartime experiences. War was for Hemingway a potent symbol of the world,
which he viewed as complex, filled with moral ambiguities, and offering almost
unavoidable pain, hurt, and destruction. To survive in such a world, and
perhaps emerge victorious, one must conduct oneself with honour, courage,
endurance, and dignity, a set of principles known as "the Hemingway
code."

To behave well in the lonely, losing battle with life is to show
"grace under pressure" and constitutes in itself a kind of victory, a
theme clearly established in The Old Man and the Sea.Hemingway's prose style
was probably the most widely imitated of any in the 20th century. He wished to
strip his own use of language of inessentials, ridding it of all traces of
verbosity, embellishment, and sentimentality. In striving to be as objective
and honest as possible, Hemingway hit upon the device of describing a series of
actions using short, simple sentences from which all comment or emotional
rhetoric have been eliminated. These sentences are composed largely of nouns
and verbs, have few adjectives and adverbs, and rely on repetition and rhythm
for much of their effect. The resulting terse, concentrated prose is concrete
and unemotional yet is often resonant and capable of conveying great irony
through understatement. Hemingway's use of dialogue was similarly fresh,
simple, and natural-sounding. The influence of this style was felt worldwide
wherever novels were written, particularly from the 1930s through the '50s.A
consummately contradictory man, Hemingway achieved a fame surpassed by few, if
any, American authors of the 20th century. The virile nature of his writing,
which attempted to re-create the exact physical sensations he experienced in
wartime, big-game hunting, and bullfighting, in fact masked an aesthetic
sensibility of great delicacy. He was a celebrity long before he reached middle
age, but his popularity continues to be validated by serious critical opinion.

Context

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in the summer of
1899. As a young man, he left home to become a newspaper writer in Kansas City.
Early in 1918, he joined the Italian Red Cross and became an ambulance driver
in Italy, serving in the battlefield in the First World War, in which the
Italians allied with the British, the French, and the Americans, against
Germany and Austria-Hungary. In Italy, he observed the carnage and the
brutality of the Great War firsthand. On July 8, 1918, a trench mortar shell
struck him while he crouched beyond the front lines with three Italian
soldiers.

Though Hemingway embellished the story of his wounding over the
years, this much is certain: he was transferred to a hospital in Milan, where
he fell in love with a Red Cross nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky. Scholars are
divided over Agnes' role in Hemingway's life and writing, but there is little
doubt that his affair with her provided the background for A Farewell to
Arms, which many critics consider to be Hemingway's greatest novel.

Published in 1929, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of
Frederic Henry, a young American ambulance driver and first lieutenant
("Tenente") in the Italian army. Hit in the leg by a trench mortar
shell in the fighting between Italy and Austria-Hungary, Henry is transferred
to a hospital in Milan, where he falls in love with an English Red Cross nurse
named Catherine Barkley. The similarities to Hemingway's own life are obvious.

After the war, when he had published several novels and become a
famous writer, Hemingway claimed that the account of Henry's wounding in A
Farewell to Arms was the most accurate version of his own wounding he had
ever written. Hemingway's life certainly gave the novel a trenchant urgency,
and its similarity to his own experience no doubt helped him refine the terse,
realistic, descriptive style for which he became famous, and which made him one
of the most influential American writers of the twentieth century.

SUMMARY

Book I, Chapters 1-6

Frederic Henry begins his story by describing his situation: he is
an American in the Italian army near the front with Austria-Hungary, a mile
from the fighting. Every day he sees troops marching and hears gunfire; often
the King rides through the town. A cholera epidemic has spread through the
army, he says, but only seven thousand die of it.

His unit moves to a town in Gorizia, further from the fighting,
which continues in the mountains beyond. His situation is relatively enjoyable;
the town is not badly damaged, with nice cafes and two brothels--one for the
officers and one for the enlisted men. One day Henry sits in the mess hall with
a group of fellow officers taunting the military priest. A captain accuses the
priest of cavorting with women, and the priest blushes; though he is not
religious, Henry treats the priest kindly. After teasing the priest, the
Italians argue over where Henry should take his leave; because the winter is approaching,
the fighting will ease, and Henry, an ambulance driver, will be able to spend
some time away from the front. The priest encourages him to visit the cold,
clear country of Abruzzo, but the other men have other suggestions.

When he returns from his leave, Henry discusses his trip with his
roommate, the surgeon Rinaldi. Henry claims to have traveled throughout Italy,
and Rinaldi, who is obsessed with beautiful girls, tells him about a group of
new English women and claims to be in love with a Miss Barkley. Henry loans him
fifty lire (Italian money). At dinner that night, the priest is hurt
that Henry failed to visit Abruzzi. Henry feels guilty, and tells him that he wanted
to visit Abruzzi.

The next morning, Henry examines the gun batteries and quizzes the
mechanics; then he travels to visit Miss Barkley and the English nurses with
Rinaldi. He is immediately struck by Miss Barkley's beauty, and especially by
her long blonde hair. Miss Barkley tells Henry that her fiancee was killed in
the battle of the Somme, and Henry tells her he has never loved anyone. On the
way back, Rinaldi observes that Miss Barkley liked Henry more than she liked
Rinaldi, but that her friend, Helen Ferguson, was nice too.

The next day, Henry calls on Miss Barkley again. The head nurse
expresses surprise that an American would want to join the Italian army, and
tells him that Miss Barkley is gone-- but says that Henry may come back to see
her at seven o'clock that night. Henry drives back along the trenches, eats
dinner, then returns to see Miss Barkley. He finds her waiting with Helen
Ferguson; Helen excuses herself, and Henry tries to put his arm around her. She
refuses, but allows him to kiss her. Then she begins to cry, and Henry is
annoyed. When Henry goes home, Rinaldi is amused.

Three nights later, Henry sees Miss Barkley again; she tells him
to call her Catherine. They walk through the garden, and Henry tells Catherine
he loves her, though he knows he does not. They kiss again, and he thinks of
their relationship as an elaborate game. To his surprise, she suddenly tells
him that he plays the game very well, but that it is a rotten game. Henry sees
Rinaldi later that evening, and Rinaldi, observing Henry's romantic confusion,
feel glad that he did not become involved with a British nurse.

Book I, Chapters 7-12

Driving back from his post, Henry picks up a soldier with a
hernia; they discuss the War, and Henry arranges a way to get the man to a
hospital. Henry thinks about the War, and realizes that he feels no danger from
it. At dinner that night, the men drink and tease the priest; Henry nearly
forgets he had promised to go see Catherine, and before he rushes over, Rinaldi
gives him some coffee to sober him up. At the nurses' villa, Helen Ferguson
tells Henry that Catherine is sick and will not see him. Henry feels guilty and
surprisingly lonely.

The next day an attack is scheduled. Henry goes to see Catherine,
and she gives him a Saint Anthony medal. He spends the day driving to the spot
where the fighting will take place.Henry and his men wait in the trenches as
the shelling begins. They are hungry, and Henry risks being shot to fetch some
cheese. As he sits down to eat it, he hears a loud noise and sees a flash and
believes he has died. A trench mortar shell has struck him in the leg. Wounded
men fall all around him.

Henry's surviving men carry him to safety; a British doctor treats
him on the field, then sends him in an ambulance to the field hospital. Henry
lies in intense pain. Rinaldi comes to visit him at the field hospital, and
tells Henry that he will get a medal. Henry shows no interest in medals.
Rinaldi leaves him a bottle of cognac and promises to send Miss Barkley to see
him soon.

At dusk, the priest comes to visit. They discuss the war, then
God. Henry tells the priest he does not love God--he says he does not love
anything much. The priest tells him he will find love, and it will make him
happy. Henry claims to have always been happy, but the priest says Henry will
know another kind of happiness when he finds it. Half delirious, Henry thinks
about Italian towns, then falls asleep.

Rinaldi and a Major from their group come to visit Henry the night
before he moves to a better hospital in Milan. Henry is still half-delirious,
and they drink profusely. After a confused conversation, Henry falls into a
drunken sleep. The next day, he is taken on a train to Milan.

Book II, Chapters 13-17

At Milan, Frederic Henry is taken to the American hospital. A
young, pretty nurse named Miss Gage makes his bed and takes his temperature.
The head nurse, Miss Van Campen, irritates Henry by not allowing him to have
wine. Henry pays some Italians to sneak wine into his room with the evening
papers.

In the morning, Miss Gage tells Henry that Miss Barkley has come
to work at the hospital--she claims not to like her, but Henry tells her she
will learn to like her. The porter brings a barber to shave Henry, but the
barber mistakes Henry for an Austrian soldier and threatens to cut his throat.
After the barber and the porter leave, Miss Barkley comes in, and Henry
realizes he is in love with her. He pulls her down into the bed with him, and
they make love for the first time.

Henry goes through a round of doctors who remove some of the
shrapnel from his leg. The doctors seem incompetent, and tell Henry he will
have to wait six months for an operation if he wants to keep his leg. He cannot
stand the thought of spending six months in bed, and asks for another opinion;
the house doctor says he will send for Dr. Valentini. When Dr. Valentini comes,
he is cheerful, energetic, and competent and says he will perform the operation
in the morning.Catherine spends the night in Henry's room, and they see a bat.
Catherine prepares him for the operation, and warns him not to talk about their
affair while under the anaesthetic.

After the operation, Henry is very sick. As he recovers, three
other patients come to the hospital--a boy from Georgia with malaria, a boy
from New York with malaria and jaundice, and a boy who tried to unscrew the
fuse cap from an explosive shell for a souvenir. Henry develops an appreciation
for Helen Ferguson, who helps him pass notes to Catherine while she is on duty.
Catherine continues to stay with Henry every night, but Henry and Miss Gage
finally convince her to take three nights off of night duty--Miss Van Campen
has commented that Henry always sleeps till noon.

Book II, Chapters 18-24

That summer Henry learns to walk on crutches, and he and Catherine
enjoy Milan. They befriend the headwaiter at a restaurant called the Gran
Italia, and Catherine continues to see Henry every night. They discuss
marriage, but Catherine remains opposed to the idea for the time being. They pretend
to be married instead. Catherine tells Henry that her love for him has become
her religion.

When not with Catherine, Henry spends time with a soldier named
Ettore Moretti, an Italian from San Francisco who is very proud of his war
medals. Ettore is extremely boastful about his military prowess, and Catherine
finds him annoying and dull. One night Henry and Catherine lie in bed listening
to the rain, and Catherine asks Henry if he will always love her. She says she
is afraid of the rain, and begins to cry.

Henry and Catherine go to the races with Helen Ferguson, whom
Henry now calls "Fergie," and the boy who tried to unscrew the nose
cap on the shrapnel shell. They bet on a horse backed by a racing expert and
former criminal named Mr. Myers; they win, but Catherine feels dissatisfied, so
they pick a horse for the next race on their own. Even though they lose, Catherine
feels much better.

By September, Henry's leg is nearly healed. He receives some leave
time from the hospital, and Catherine tells him she will arrange to go with
him. She then gives him a piece of startling news: she is six months pregnant.
Catherine worries that Henry feels trapped, and promises not to make trouble
for him, but he tells her he feels cheerful and thinks she is wonderful.
Catherine talks about the obstacles they will face, and mentions the old quote
about how the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one. She says that,
in reality, the brave man dies perhaps two thousand deaths in his
imagination--he simply does not mention them.

The next morning it begins to rain, and Henry is diagnosed with
jaundice. Miss Van Campen finds empty liquor bottles in Henry's room, and
accuses him of producing jaundice through alcoholism to avoid being sent back
to the front. Miss Gage helps Henry clear things up, but in the end he loses
his leave time.

Henry prepares to travel back to the front. He buys a new pistol,
and takes Catherine to a hotel. The hotel makes Catherine feel like a
prostitute, but before the night is over they feel at home there. Before
midnight, they walk downstairs and Henry calls a carriage for Catherine. They
have a brief good-bye, and Henry boards the crowded train that will take him
back to the war.

Book III, Chapters 25-28

After returning to Gorizia, Henry has a talk with the major about
the war--it was a bad year, the major says; Henry was lucky to get hit when he
did. Henry then goes to find Rinaldi; while he waits for his friend, he thinks
about Catherine. Rinaldi comes into the room and is glad to see Henry;
concerned, he examines Henry's wounded knee. He says that he has become a
skilled surgeon from the constant work with the wounded, but now that the
fighting has died down temporarily he has a frustrating lack of work. They talk
about Catherine, and at dinner the officers tease the priest.

After dinner, Henry goes to talk with the priest. The priest
thinks the war will end soon, but Henry remains skeptical. After the priest
leaves, Henry goes to sleep; he wakes when Rinaldi comes back, but quickly
falls asleep again.

The next morning, he travels to the Bainsizza area, and sees the
damage caused by the war: the whole village is destroyed. Henry meets a man
named Gino, and they discuss the fighting. Gino says the summer's losses were
not in vain, and Henry falls silent--he says words like those embarrass him. He
says that the names of villages and the numbers of streets have more meaning
than words like sacred and glorious.That night, the rain comes down hard, and
the Croatians begin a bombardment. In the morning, the Italians learn that the
attacking forces include Germans, and they become very afraid--they have had
little contact with the Germans in the war so far, and prefer to keep it that
way. The next night, the Italian line has been broken, and the Italian forces
begin a large-scale retreat.

As the forces slowly move out, Henry returns to the villa, but
finds it empty; Rinaldi is gone with the hospital. Henry finds the drivers
under his command, including Piani, Bonello, and Aymo. Before leaving in the
morning, Henry gets a good night's sleep.

They drive out slowly through the town, in an endless line of
soldiers and vehicles. Henry takes a turn sleeping, and shortly after he wakes,
the column stalls. He finds that Bonello has given two engineer sergeants a
ride, and Aymo has two girls in his car. Exhausted, Henry falls asleep again,
and dreams of Catherine.That night, columns of peasants join the retreating
army. In the early morning Henry and his men stop briefly at a farmhouse,
eating a large breakfast. Soon, they continue slowly on their way, rejoining
the line of trucks and soldiers.

Book III, Chapters 29-32

Aymo's car gets stuck in the soft ground; the men are forced to
cut brush hurriedly to place under the tires for traction. Henry orders the two
engineer sergeants riding with Bonello to help; afraid of being overtaken by
the enemy, they refuse, and try to leave. Henry draws his gun and shoots one of
them, but the other escapes. Bonello takes Henry's pistol and kills the wounded
sergeant.

They begin to cut branches and twigs; in the end, they are unable
to save the car. Henry gives some money to the two girls travelling with Aymo
and encourages them to go down to a nearby village, Aymo gets in Henry's
vehicle, and they set out, now cut off from the main column.

Crossing a bridge, Henry sees a nearby car full of German
soldiers. As they travel, they begin to notice more and more signs of German
occupation, and they worry that they have been completely cut off from
Italian-controlled land. They proceed with caution; a sudden burst of gunfire
kills Aymo. They realize he was shot by the Italian rear guard--the Italians
are ahead, but because the rear guard is afraid, they are almost as dangerous
as the Germans.

Fearing death, Bonello leaves in hopes of being taken prisoner.
The men hide in a barn that night, and in the morning they rejoin the Italians.
The enlisted men become furious with the officers, and Piani is afraid they
will try to kill Henry. Suddenly, two men (battle police) seize hold of Henry.
They seize Henry because he is a foreigner, and in the chaos of the retreat
they intend to shoot him for a spy. When they look away for a moment, Henry
dives into the river and swims away.

After floating in the river for what seems like a very long time,
Henry climbs out, removes the stars from his shirt, and counts his money. He
crosses the Venetian plain that day, then jumps aboard a military train that
evening, hiding under a canvas with guns.

Lying under the canvas, Henry thinks about the army, about the
war, and about Catherine. He realizes that he will be pronounced dead, and
assumes he will never see Rinaldi again. Rinaldi has been concerned he will die
of syphilis, and Henry worries for him. Exhausted and hungry, he imagines
finding Catherine and going away with her to a safe place.

Book V, Chapters 38-41

That fall, Henry and Catherine live in a brown wooden house on the
side of a mountain. They enjoy the company of Mr. and Mrs. Guttingen, who live
downstairs, and they remain very happy together; sometimes they walk down the
mountain path in Montreux. One day Catherine gets her hair done in Montreux,
and afterwards they go to have a beer--Catherine thinks beer is good for the
baby, because it will keep it small; she is worried about the baby's size
because the doctor has said she has a narrow pelvis. They talk again about
getting married, but Catherine wants to wait until after the baby is born when
she will be thin again.

Three days before Christmas, the snow comes. Catherine asks Henry
if he feels restless, and he says no, though he does wonder about his friends
on the front, such as Rinaldi and the priest.

Henry decides to grow a beard and by mid-January, he has one.
Through January and February he and Catherine remain very happy; in March they
move into town to be near the hospital. They stay in a hotel there for three
weeks; Catherine buys baby clothes, Henry works out in the gym, and they both
feel that the baby will arrive soon.

Finally, around three o'clock one morning, Catherine goes into
labor. They go to the hospital, where Catherine is given a nightgown and a
room. She encourages Henry to go out for breakfast, and he does, talking to the
old man who serves him. When he returns to the hospital, he finds that
Catherine has been taken to the delivery room. He goes in to see her; the
doctor stands by, and Catherine takes an anaesthetic gas when her contractions
become very painful. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Henry goes out for lunch.

He goes back to the hospital; Catherine is now intoxicated from
the gas. The doctor thinks her pelvis is too narrow to allow the baby to pass
through, and advises a Caesarian section. Catherine suffers unbearable pain and
pleads for more gas. Finally they wheel her out on a stretcher to perform the
operation. Henry watches the rain outside.

Soon the doctor comes out and takes Henry to see the baby, a boy.
Henry has no feeling for the child. He then goes to see Catherine, and at first
worries that she is dead. When she asks him about their son, he tells her he
was fine, and the nurse gives him a quizzical look. Ushering him outside, the
nurse tells him that the boy is not fine--he strangled on the umbilical cord,
and never began to breathe.

He goes out for dinner, and when he returns the nurse tells him
that Catherine is hemorrhaging. He is filled with terror that she will die.
When he is allowed to see her, she tells him she will die, and asks him not to
say the same things to other girls. Henry goes into the hallway while they try
to treat Catherine, but nothing works; finally, he goes back into the room and
stays with her until she dies.

The doctor offers to drive him back to the hotel, but Henry
declines. He goes back into the room and tries to say good-bye to Catherine,
but says that it was like saying good-bye to a statue. He leaves the hospital
and walks back to his hotel in the rain

CHARACTERS’ PROFILE

Frederic Henry - The novel's protagonist. A young American ambulance driver in
the Italian army during the First World War, Henry is disciplined and
courageous, but feels detached from life. When introduced to Catherine Barkley,
Henry discovers a capacity for love he had not known he possessed, and begins a
process of development that culminates with his desertion of the Italian army.
Throughout the novel, the Italian soldiers under Henry's command call him
"Tenente"--the Italian word for "lieutenant."

Catherine
Barkley -
An English nurse who falls in love with Frederic Henry. Catherine's fiancee was
killed in the battle of the Somme before she met Henry. Catherine has cast
aside conventional social values, and lives according to her own values,
devoting herself wholly to her love for Henry. Her long, beautiful hair is her
most distinctive physical feature.

Rinaldi - Frederic's friend, an
Italian surgeon. Mischievous and wry, Rinaldi is nevertheless a passionate and
skilled doctor. Rinaldi makes a practice of always being in love with a beautiful
woman, and at the beginning of the novel is attracted to Catherine Barkley;
Rinaldi's infatuation causes him to introduce Frederic and Catherine to one
another.

Helen
Ferguson
- A friend of Catherine's. Though she remains fond of the lovers and helps
them, Helen is much more committed to social convention than Henry and
Catherine; she vocally disapproves of their "immoral" love affair.

Miss
Gage - An
American nurse. Miss Gage becomes a friend to both Catherine and Henry--in
fact, she may be in love with Henry. Unlike Helen Ferguson, she sets aside
conventional social values to support their love affair.

Miss
Van Campen
- The superintendent of nurses at the American hospital where Catherine works.
Miss Van Campen is strict, cold, and unlikable; she is obsessed with rules and
regulations and has no patience for or interest in individual feelings.

Dr.
Valentini
- An Italian surgeon who comes to the American hospital. Self-assured and
confident, Dr. Valentini is also a highly talented surgeon. Frederic Henry
takes an immediate liking to him. Count Greffi - A spry ninety-four year old nobleman. Henry knows Count
Greffi from his time in Stresa, and the two play billiards together toward the
end of the novel. Despite his advanced age, the count is intelligent,
disciplined, and fully committed to life.

The Grapes of
Wrath

Full Summary

Chapter One: Steinbeck begins the novel with a description of the dust bowl
climate of Oklahoma. The dust was so thick that men and women had to remain in
their houses, and when they had to leave they tied handkerchiefs over their
faces and wore goggles to protect their eyes. After the wind had stopped, an
even blanket of dust covered the earth. The corn crop was ruined. Everybody
wondered what they would do. The women and children knew that no misfortune was
too great to bear if their men were whole, but the men had not yet figured out
what to do.

Chapter Two: A man approaches a small diner where a large red transport truck
is parked. The man is under thirty, with dark brown eyes and high cheekbones.
He wore new clothes that don't quite fit. The truck driver exits from the diner
and the man asks him for a ride, despite the "No Riders" sticker on
the truck. The man claims that sometimes a guy will do a good thing even when a
rich bastard makes him carry a sticker, and the driver, feeling trapped by the
statement, lets the man have a ride. While driving, the truck driver asks
questions, and the man finally gives his name, Tom Joad. The truck driver
claims that guys do strange things when they drive trucks, such as make up
poetry, because of the loneliness of the job. The truck driver claims that his
experience driving has trained his memory and that he can remember everything
about a person he passes. Realizing that the truck driver is pressing for
information, Tom finally admits that he had just been released from McAlester
prison for homicide. He had been sentenced to seven years and was released
after only four, for good behavior.

Chapter Three: At the side of the roadside, a turtle crawled, dragging his shell
over the grass. He came to the embankment at the road and, with great effort,
climbed onto the road. As the turtle attempts to cross the road, it is nearby
hit by a sedan. A truck swerves to hit the turtle, but its wheel only strikes
the edge of its shell and spins it back off the highway. The turtle lays on its
back, but finally pulls itself over.

Chapter Four: After getting out of the truck, Tom Joad begins walking home. He
sees the turtle of the previous chapter and picks it up. He stops in the shade
of a tree to rest and meets a man who sits there, singing "Jesus is My
Savior." The man, Jim Casy, had a long, bony frame and sharp features. A
former minister, he recognizes Tom immediately. He was a "Burning
Busher" who used to "howl out the name of Jesus to glory," but
he lost the calling because he has too many sinful ideas that seem sensible.
Tom tells Casy that he took the turtle for his little brother, and he replies
that nobody can keep a turtle, for they eventually just go off on their own.
Casy claims that he doesn't know where he's going now, and Tom tells him to
lead people, even if he doesn't know where to lead them. Casy tells Tom that
part of the reason he quit preaching was that he too often succumbed to temptation,
having sex with many of the girls he Œsaved.' Finally he realized that perhaps
what he was doing wasn't a sin, and there isn't really sin or virtue there are
simply things people do.

He realized he didn't Œknow Jesus,' he merely knew the stories of
the Bible. Tom tells Casy why he was in jail: he was at a dance drunk, and got
in a fight with a man. The man cut Tom with a knife, so he hit him over the
head with a shovel. Tom tells him that he was treated relatively well in
McAlester. He ate regularly, got clean clothes and bathed. He even tells about
how someone broke his parole to go back. Tom tells how his father Œstole' their
house. There was a family living there that moved away, so his father, uncle
and grandfather cut the house in two and dragged part of it first, only to find
that Wink Manley took the other half. They get to the boundary fence of their
property, and Tom tells him that they didn't need a fence, but it gave Pa a
feeling that their forty acres was forty acres. Tom and Casy get to the house:
something has happened nobody is there.

Chapter Five: This chapter describes the coming of the bank representatives to
evict the farmers. Some of the men were kind because they knew how cruel their
job was, while some were angry because they hated to be cruel, and others were
merely cold and hardened by their job. They are mostly pawns of a system that
they can merely obey. The tenant system has become untenable for the banks, for
one man on a tractor can take the place of a dozen families. The farmers raise
the possibility of armed insurrection, but what would they fight against? They
will be murderers if they stay, fighting against the wrong targets.

Steinbeck describes the arrival of the tractors. They crawled over
the ground, cutting the earth like surgery and violating it like rape. The
tractor driver does his job simply out of necessity: he has to feed his kids,
even if it comes at the expense of dozens of families. Steinbeck dramatizes a
conversation between a truck driver and an evicted tenant farmer. The farmer
threatens to kill the driver, but even if he does so, he will not stop the
bank. Another driver will come. Even if the farmer murders the president of the
bank and board of directors, the bank is controlled by the East. There is no
effective target which could prevent the evictions.

Chapter Six: Casy and Tom approached the Joad home. The house was mashed at
one corner and appeared deserted. Casy says that it looks like the arm of the
Lord had struck. Tom can tell that Ma isn't there, for she would have never
left the gate unhooked. They only see one resident (the cat), but Tom wonders
why the cat didn't go to find another family if his family had moved, or why
the neighbors hadn't taken the rest of the belongings in the house. Muley
Graves approaches, a short, lean old man with the truculent look of an ornery
child. Muley tells Tom that his mother was worrying about him. His family was
evicted, and had to move in with his Uncle John. They were forced to chop
cotton to make enough money to go west. Casy suggests going west to pick grapes
in California. Muley tells Tom and Casy that the loss of the farm broke up his
family his wife and kids went off to California, while Muley chose to stay. He
has been forced to eat wild game. He muses about how angry he was when he was
told he had to get off the land. First he wanted to kill people, but then his
family left and Muley was left alone and wandering. He realized that he is used
to the place, even if he has to wander the land like a ghost. Tom tells them
that he can't go to California, for it would mean breaking parole. According to
Tom, prison has not changed him significantly. He thinks that if he saw Herb
Turnbull, the man he killed, coming after him with a knife again, he would still
hit him with the shovel. Tom tells them that there was a man in McAlester that
read a great deal about prisons and told him that they started a long time ago
and now cannot be stopped, despite the fact that they do not actually rehabilitate
people. Muley tells them that they have to hide, for they are trespassing on
the land. They have to hide in a cave for the night.

Chapter Seven: The car dealership owners look at their customers. They watch for
weaknesses, such as a woman who wants an expensive car and can push her husband
into buying one. They attempt to make the customers feel obliged. The proffts
come from selling jalopies, not from new and dependable cars. There are no
guarantees, hidden costs and obvious flaws.

Chapter Eight: Tom and Casy reach Uncle John's farm. They remark that Muley's
lonely and covert lifestyle has obviously driven him insane. According to Tom,
his Uncle John is equally crazy, and wasn't expected to live long, yet is older
than his father. Still, he is tougher and meaner than even Grampa, hardened by
losing his young wife years ago. They see Pa Joad fixing the truck. When he
sees Tom, he assumes that he broke out of jail. They go in the house and see Ma
Joad, a heavy woman thick with child-bearing and work. Her face was controlled
and kindly. She worries that Tom went mad in prison. This chapter also
introduces Grampa and Granma Joad. She is as tough as he is, once shooting her
husband while she was speaking in tongues. Noah Joad, Tom's older brother, is a
strange man, slow and withdrawn, with little pride and few urges. He may have
been brain damaged at childbirth. The family has dinner, and Casy says grace.
He talks about how Jesus went off into the wilderness alone, and how he did the
same. Yet what Casy concluded was that mankind was holy. Pa tells Tom about Al,
his sixteen-year old brother, who is concerned with little more than girls and
cars. He hasn't been at home at night for a week. His sister Rosasharn has
married Connie Rivers, and is several months pregnant. They have two hundred
dollars for their journey.

Chapter Nine: This chapter describes the process of selling belongings. The
items pile up in the yard, selling for ridiculously low prices. Whatever is not
sold must be burned, even items of sentimental value that simply cannot be
taken on the journey for lack of space.

Chapter Ten: Ma Joad tells Tom that she is concerned about going to
California, worried that it won't turn out well, for the only information they
have is from flyers they read. Casy asks to accompany them to California. He
wants to work in the fields, where he can listen to people rather than preach
to them. Tom says that preaching is a tone of voice and a style, being good to
people when they don't respond to it. Pa and Uncle John return with the truck,
and prepare to leave. The two children, twelve-year old Ruthie and ten-year old
Winfield are there with their older sister, Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) and her
husband. They discuss how Tom can't leave the state because of his parole. They
have a family conference that night and discuss a number of issues: they decide
to allow Casy to go with them, since it's the only right thing for them to do.
They continue with preparations, killing the pigs to have food to take with
them. While Casy helps out Ma Joad with food preparation, he remarks to Tom
that she looks tired, as if she is sick. Ma Joad looks through her belongings,
going through old letters and clippings she had saved. She has to place them in
the fire. Before they leave, Muley Graves stops to say goodbye. Noah tells him
that he's going to die out in the field if he stays, but Muley accepts his
fate. Grampa refuses to leave, so they decide to give him medicine that will
knock him out and take him with them.

Chapter Eleven: The houses were left vacant. Only the
tractor sheds of gleaming iron and silver were alive. Yet when the tractors are
at rest the life goes out of them. The work is easy and efficient, so easy that
the wonder goes out of the work and so efficient that the wonder goes out of the
land and the working of it. In the tractor man there grows the contempt that
comes to a stranger who has little understanding and no relation to the land.
The abandoned houses slowly fall apart.

Chapter Twelve: Highway 66 is the main migrant road stretching
from the Mississippi to Bakersfield, California. It is a road of flight for
refugees from the dust and shrinking land. The people streamed out on 66,
possibly breaking down in their undependable cars on the way. Yet the travelers
face obstacles. California is a big state, but not big enough to support all of
the workers who are coming. The border patrol can turn people back. The high
wages that are promised may be false.

Chapter Thirteen: The Joads continue on their travels. Al
remarks that they may have trouble getting over mountains in their car, which
can barely support its weight. Grampa Joad wakes up and insists that he's not
going with them. They stop at a gas station where the owner automatically
assumes they are broke, and tells them that people often stop, begging for gas.
The owner claims that fifty cars per day go west, but wonders what they expect
when they reach their destination. He tells how one family traded their
daughter's doll for some gas. Casy wonders what the nation is coming to, since
people seem unable to make a decent living. Casy says that he used to use his energy
to fight against the devil, believing that the devil was the enemy. However,
now he believes that there's something worse. The Joad's dog wanders from the
car and is run over in the road. They continue on their journey and begin to
worry when they reach the state line. However, Tom reassures them that he is
only in danger if he commits a crime. Otherwise, nobody will know that he has
broken his parole by leaving the state. On their next stop for the night, the
Joads meet the Wilsons, a family from Kansas that is going to California.
Grampa complains of illness, and weeps. The family thinks that he may suffer a
stroke. Granma tells Casy to pray for Grampa, even if he is no longer a
preacher. Suddenly Grampa starts twitching and slumps. He dies. The Joads face
a choice: they can pay fifty dollars for a proper burial for him or have him
buried a pauper. They decide to bury Grampa themselves and leave a note so that
people don't assume he was murdered. The Wilsons help them bury Grampa. They
write a verse from scripture on the note on his grave. After burying Grampa,
they have Casy say a few words. The reactions to the death are varied. Rose of
Sharon comforts Granma, while Uncle John is curiously unmoved by the turn of
events. Casy admits that he knew Grampa was dying, but didn't say anything
because he couldn't have helped. He blames the separation from the land for
Grampa's death. The Joads and the Sairy Wilson decide to help each other on the
journey by spreading out the load between their two cars so that both families
will make it to California.

Chapter Fourteen: The Western States are nervous about the
impending changes, including the widening government, growing labor unity, and
strikes. However, they do not realize that these are results of change and not
causes of it. The cause is the hunger of the multitude. The danger that they
face is that the people's problems have moved from "I" to
"we."

Chapter Fifteen: This chapter begins with a description of
the hamburger stands and diners on Route 66. The typical diner is run by a
usually irritated woman who nevertheless becomes friendly when truck drivers
consistent customers who can always pay enter. The more wealthy travelers drop
names and buy vanity products. The owners of the diners complain about the
migrating workers, who can't pay and often steal. A family comes in, wanting to
buy a loaf of bread. The one owner, Mae, tells them that they're not a grocery
store, but Al, the other, tells them to just sell the bread. Mae sells the
family candy for reduced prices. Mae and Al wonder what such families will do
once they reach California.

Chapter Sixteen: The Joads and the Wilsons continue on their
travels. Rose of Sharon discusses with her mother what they will do when they
reach California. She and Connie want to live in a town, where he can get a job
in a store or a factory. He wants to study at home, possibly taking a radio
correspondence course. There is a rattling in the Wilson's car, so Al is forced
to pull over. There are problems with the motor. Sairy Wilson tells them that
they should go on ahead without them, but Ma Joad refuses, telling them that
they are like family now and they won't desert them. Tom says that he and Casy
will stay with the truck if everyone goes on ahead. They'll fix the car and
then move on. Only Ma objects. She refuses to go, for the only thing that they
have left is each other and she will not break up the family even momentarily.
When everyone else objects to her, she even picks up a jack handle and
threatens them. Tom and Casy try to fix the car, and Casy remarks about how he
has seen so many cars moving west, but no cars going east. Casy predicts that
all of the movement and collection of people in California will change the
country. The two of them stay with the car while the family goes ahead. Before
they leave, Al tells Tom that Ma is worried that he will do something that
might break his parole. Granma has been going crazy, yelling and talking to
herself.

Al asks Tom about what he felt when he killed a man. Tom admits
that prison has a tendency to drive a man insane. Tom and Al find a junkyard
where they find a part to replace the broken con-rod in the Wilson's car. The
one-eyed man working at the junkyard complains about his boss, and says that he
might kill him. Tom tells off the one-eyed man for blaming all of his problems
on his eye, and then criticizes Al for his constant worry that people will
blame him for the car breaking down. Tom, Casy and Al rejoin the rest of the
family at a campground not far away. To stay at the campground, the three would
have to pay an additional charge, for they would be charged with vagrancy if
they slept out in the open. Tom, Casy and Uncle John eventually decide to go on
ahead and meet up with everyone else in the morning. A ragged man at the camp,
when he hears that the Joads are going to pick oranges in California, laughs.
The man, who is returning from California, tells how the handbills are a fraud.
They ask for eight hundred people, but get several thousand people who want to
work. This drives down wages. The proprietor of the campground suspects that
the ragged man is trying to stir up trouble for labor.

Chapter Seventeen: A strange thing happened for the migrant
laborers. During the day, as they traveled, the cars were separate and lonely,
yet in the evening a strange thing happened: at the campgrounds where they
stayed the twenty or so families became one. Their losses and their concerns
became communal. The families were at first timid, but they gradually built
small societies within the campgrounds, with codes of behavior and rights that
must be observed. For transgressions, there were only two punishments: violence
or ostracism. Leaders emerged, generally the wise elders. The various families
found connections to one another

Chapter Eighteen: When the Joads reach Arizona, a border guard
stops them and nearly turns them back, but does let them continue. They
eventually reach the desert of California. The terrain is barren and desolate.
While washing themselves during a stop, the Joads encounter migrant workers who
want to turn back. They tell them that the Californians hate the migrant
workers. A good deal of the land is owned by the Land and Cattle Company that
leaves the land largely untouched. Sheriffs push around migrant workers, whom
they derisively call "Okies." Noah tells Tom that he is going to
leave everyone, for they don't care about him. Although Tom protests, Noah
leaves them. Granma remains ill, suffering from delusions. She believes that
she sees Grampa. A Jehovite woman visits their tent to help Granma, and tells
Ma that she will die soon. The woman wants to organize a prayer meeting, but Ma
orders them not to do so. Nevertheless, soon she can hear from a distance
chanting and singing that eventually descends into crying. Granma whines with
the whining, then eventually falls asleep. Rose of Sharon wonders where Connie
is. Deputies come to the tent and tell Ma that they cannot stay there and that
they don't want any Okies around. Tom returns to the tent after the policeman
leaves, and is glad that he wasn't there; he admits that he would have hit the
cop. He tells Ma about Noah. The Wilsons decide to remain even if they face
arrest, since Sairy is too sick to leave without any rest. Sairy asks Casy to
say a prayer for her. The Joads move on, and at a stop a boy remarks how
hard-looking Okies are and how they are less than human. Uncle John speaks with
Casy, worried that he brings bad luck to people. Connie and Rose of Sharon need
privacy. Yet again the Joads are pulled over for inspection, but Ma Joad
insists that they must continue because Granma needs medical attention. The
next morning when they reach the orange groves, Ma tells them that Granma is
dead. She died before they were pulled over for inspection.

Chapter Nineteen: California once belonged to Mexico and its
land to the Mexicans. But a horde of tattered feverish American poured in, with
such great hunger for the land that they took it. Farming became an industry as
the Americans took over. They imported Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and Filipino
workers who became essentially slaves. The owners of the farms ceased to be
farmers and became businessmen. They hated the Okies who came because they
could not profft from them. Other laborers hated the Okies because they pushed
down wages. While the Californians had aspirations of social success and
luxury, the barbarous Okies only wanted land and food. Hoovervilles arose at
the edge of every town. The Okies were forced to secretly plant gardens in the
evenings. The deputies overreacted to the Okies, spurred by stories that an
eleven year old Okie shot a deputy. The great owners realized that when
property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away and that when a majority
of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need.

Chapter Twenty: The Joads take Granma to the Bakersfield
coroner's office. They can't afford a funeral for her. They go to a camp to
stay and ask about work. They ask a bearded man if he owns the camp and whether
they can stay, and he replies with the same question to them. A younger man
tells them that the crazy old man is called the Mayor. According to the man,
the Mayor has likely been pushed by the police around so much that he's been
made bull-simple (crazy). The police don't want them to settle down, for then
they could draw relief, organize and vote. The younger man tells them about the
handbill fraud, and Tom suggests that everybody organize so that they could
guarantee higher wages. The man warns Tom about the blacklist. If he is labeled
an agitator he will be prevented from getting from anybody. Tom talks to Casy,
who has recently been relatively quiet. Casy says that the people unorganized
are like an army without a harness. Casy says that he isn't helping out the
family and should go off by himself. Tom tries to convince him to stay at least
until the next day, and he relents. Connie regrets his decision to come with
the Joads. He says that if he had stayed in Oklahoma he could have worked as a
tractor driver. When Ma is fixing dinner, groups of small children approach,
asking for food. The children tell the Joads about Weedpatch, a government camp
that is nearby where no cops can push people around and there is good drinking
water. Al goes around looking for girls, and brags about how Tom killed a man.
Al meets a man named Floyd Knowles, who tells them that there was no steady
work. A woman reprimands Ma Joad for giving her children stew. Al brings Floyd
back to the family, where he says that there will be work up north around Santa
Clara Valley. He tells them to leave quietly, because everyone else will follow
after the work. Al wants to go with Floyd no matter what. A man arrives in a Chevrolet
coupe, wearing a business suit. He tells them about work picking fruit around
Tulare County. Floyd tells the man to show his license -this is one of the
tricks that the contractor uses. Floyd points out some of the dirty tactics
that the contractor is using, such as bringing along a cop. The cop forces
Floyd into the car and says that the Board of Health might want to shut down
their camp. Floyd punched the cop and ran off. As the deputy chased after him,
Tom tripped him. The deputy raised his gun to shoot Floyd and fires indiscriminately,
shooting a woman in the hand. Suddenly Casy kicked the deputy in the back of
the neck, knocking him unconscious. Casy tells Tom to hide, for the contractor
saw him trip the deputy. More officers come to the scene, and they take away
Casy, who has a faint smile and a look of pride. Rose of Sharon wonders where
Connie has gone. She has not seen him recently. Uncle John admits that he had
five dollars. He kept it to get drunk. Uncle John gives them the five in
exchange for two, which is enough for him. Al tells Rose of Sharon that he saw
Connie, who was leaving. Pa claims that Connie was too big for his overalls,
but Ma scolds him, telling him to act respectfully, as if Connie were dead.
Because the cops are going to burn the camp tonight, they have to leave. Tom
goes to find Uncle John, who has gone off to get drunk. Tom finds him by the
river, singing morosely. He claims that he wants to die. Tom has to hit him to
make him come. Rose of Sharon wants to wait for Connie to return. They leave
the camp, heading north toward the government camp.

Chapter Twenty-One: The hostility that the migrant workers faced
changed them. They were united as targets of hostility, and this unity made the
little towns of Hoovervilles defend themselves. There was panic when the migrants
multiplied on the highways. The California residents feared them, thinking them
dirty, ignorant degenerates and sexual maniacs. The number of migrant workers
caused the wages to go down. The owners invented a new method: the great owners
bought canneries, where they kept the price of fruit down to force smaller
farmers out. The owners did not know that the line between hunger and anger is
a thin one.

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Joads reach the government camp, where
they are surprised to find that there are toilets and showers and running
water. The watchman at the camp explains some of the other features of the
camp: there is a central committee elected by the camp residents that keeps
order and makes rules, and the camp even holds dance nights. The next morning,
two camp residents (Timothy and Wilkie Wallace) give Tom breakfast and tell him
about work. When they reach the fields where they are to work, Mr. Thomas, the
contractor, tells them that he is reducing wages from thirty to twenty-five
cents per hour. It is not his choice, but rather orders from the Farmers'
Association, which is owned by the Bank of the West. Thomas also shows them a
newspaper, which has a story about a band of citizens who burn a squatters' camp,
infuriated by presumed communist agitation, and warns them about the dance at
the government camp on Saturday night. There will be a fight in the camp so
that the deputies can go in. The Farmers' Association dislikes the government
camps because the people in the camps become used to being treated humanely and
are thus harder to handle. Tom and the Wallaces vow to make sure that there
won't be a fight.

While they work, Wilkie tells Tom that the complaints about
agitators are false. According to the rich owners, any person who wants thirty
cents an hour instead of twenty-five is a red. Back at the camp, Ruthie and
Winfield explore the camp, and are fascinated by the toilets they are
frightened by the flushing sound. Ma Joad makes the rest of the family clean
themselves up before the Ladies Committee comes to visit her. Jim Rawley, the
camp manager, introduces himself to the Joads and tells them some of the
features of the camp. Rose of Sharon goes to take a bath, and learns that a
nurse visits the camp every week and can help her deliver the baby when it is
time. Ma remarks that she no longer feels ashamed, as she had when they were
constantly harassed by the police. Lisbeth Sandry, a religious zealot, speaks
with Rose of Sharon about the alleged sin that goes on during the dances, and
complains about people putting on stage plays, which she calls Œsin and
delusion and devil stuff.' The woman even blames playacting for a mother
dropping her child. Rose of Sharon becomes frightened upon hearing this, fearing
that she will drop her child. Jessie Bullitt, the head of the Ladies Committee,
gives Ma Joad a tour of the camp and explains some of the problems. Jessie
bickers with Ella Summers, the previous committee head. The children play and
bicker. Pa comforts Uncle John, who still wants to leave, thinking that he will
bring the family punishment. Ma Joad confronts Lisbeth Sandry for frightening
Rose and for preaching that every action is sinful. Ma becomes depressed about
all of the losses Granma and Grampa, John and Connie because she now has
leisure time to think about such things.

Chapter Twenty-Three: The migrant workers looked for amusement
wherever they could find it, whether in jokes or stories for amusement. They
told stories of heroism in taming the land against the Indians, or about a rich
man who pretended to be poor and fell in love with a rich woman who was also
pretending to be poor. The workers took small pleasures in playing the
harmonica or a more precious guitar or fiddle, or even in getting drunk.

Chapter Twenty-Four: The rumors that the police were going to
break up the dance reached the camp. According to Ezra Huston, the chairman of
the Central Committee, this is a frequent tactic that the police use. Huston
tells Willie Eaton, the head of the entertainment committee, that if he must
hit a deputy, do so where they won't bleed. The camp members say that the
Californians hate them because the migrants might draw relief without paying income
tax, but they refute this, claiming that they pay sales tax and tobacco tax. At
the dance, Willie Eaton approaches Tom and tells him where to watch for
intruders. Ma comforts Rose of Sharon, who is depressed about Connie. Tom finds
the intruders at the dance, but the intruders begin a fight and immediately the
police enter the camp. Huston confronts the police about the intruders, asking
who paid them. They only admit that they have to make money somehow. Once the
problem is defused, the dance goes on without any problems.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Spring is beautiful in California, for
behind the fruitfulness of the trees in the orchards are men of understanding
who experiment with the seeds and crops to defend them against insects and
disease. Yet the fruits become rotten and soft. The rotten grapes are still
used for wine, even if contaminated with mildew and formic acid. The rationale
is that it is good enough for the poor to get drunk. The decay of the fruit
spreads over the state. The men who have created the new fruits cannot create a
system whereby the fruits may be eaten. There is a crime here that goes beyond
denunciation, a sorrow that weeping cannot symbolize. Children must die from pellagra
because the profft cannot be taken from an orange.

Chapter Twenty-Six: One evening, Ma Joad watches Winfield as he
sleeps; he writhes as he sleeps, and he seems discolored. In the month that the
Joads have been in Weedpatch, Tom has had only five days of work, and the rest
of the men have had none. Ma worries because Rose of Sharon is close to
delivering her baby. Ma reprimands them for becoming discouraged. She tells
them that in such circumstances they don't have the right. Pa fears that they
will have to leave Weedpatch. When Tom mentions work in Marysville, Ma decides
that they will go there, for despite the accommodations at Weedpatch, they have
no opportunity to make money. They plan to go north, where the cotton will soon
be ready for harvest. Regarding Ma Joad's forceful control of the family, Pa remarks
that women seem to be in control, and it may be time to get out a stick. Ma
hears this, and tells him that she is doing her job as wife, but he certainly
isn't doing his job as husband. Rose of Sharon complains that if Connie hadn't
left they would have had a house by now. Ma pierces Rose of Sharon's ears so that
she can wear small gold earrings. Al parts ways with a blonde girl that he has
been seeing; she rejects his promises that they will eventually get married. He
promises her that he'll return soon, but she does not believe him. Pa remarks
that he only notices that he stinks now that he takes regular baths. Before
they leave, Willie remarks that the deputies don't bother the residents of
Weedpatch because they are united, and that their solution may be a union.

The car starts to break down as the Joads leave Al has let the
battery run down but he fixes the problem and they continue on their way. Al
is irritable as they leave. He says that he's going out on his own soon to
start a family. On the road, they get a flat tire. While Tom fixes the tire, a
businessman stops in his car and offers them a job picking peaches forty miles
north. They reach the ranch at Pixley where they are to pick oranges for five
cents a box. Even the women and children can do the job. Ruthie and Winfield
worry about settling down in the area and going to school in California. They
assume that everyone will call them Okies. At the nearby grocery store owned by
Hooper Ranch, Ma finds that the prices are much higher than they would be at
the store in town. The sales clerk lends Ma ten cents for sugar. She tells him
that it is only poor people who will help out. That night, Tom goes for a walk,
but a deputy tells him to walk back to the cabin at the ranch. The deputy
claims that if Tom is alone, the reds will get to him.

While continuing on his walk, Tom finds Casy, who has been
released from jail. He is with a group of men that are on strike. Casy claims
that people who strive for justice always face opposition, citing Lincoln and
Washington, as well as the martyrs of the French Revolution. Casy, Tom and the
rest of the strikers are confronted by the police. A short, heavy man with a
white pick handle swings it at Casy, hitting him in the head. Tom fights with
the man, and eventually wrenches the club from him and strikes him with it, killing
him. Tom immediately fled the scene, crawling through a stream to get back to
the cabin. He cannot sleep that night, and in the morning tells Ma that he has
to hide. He tells her that he was spotted, and warns his family that they are
breaking the strike they are getting five cents a box only because of this,
and today may only get half that amount. When Tom tells Ma that he is going to
leave that night, she tells him that they aren't a family anymore: Al cares
about nothing more than girls, Uncle John is only dragging along, Pa has lost
his place as the head of the family, and the children are becoming unruly. Rose
of Sharon screams at Tom for murdering the man she thinks that his sin will
doom her baby. After a day of work, Winfield becomes extremely sick from eating
peaches. Uncle John tells Tom that when the police catch him, there will be a
lynching. Tom insists that he must leave, but Ma insists that they leave as a
family. They hide Tom as they leave, taking the back roads to avoid police.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Those who want to pick cotton must first
purchase a bag before they can make money. The men who weigh the cotton fix the
scales to cheat the workers. The introduction of a cotton-picking machine seems
inevitable.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Joads now stay in a boxcar that stood
beside the stream, a small home that proved better than anything except for the
government camp. They were now picking cotton. Winfield tells Ma that Ruthie
told about Tom she got into an argument with some other kids, and told them
that her brother was on the run for committing murder. Ruthie returns to Ma,
crying that the kids stole her Cracker Jack the reason that she threatened
them by telling about Tom but Ma tells her that it was her own fault for
showing off her candy to others. That night, in the pitch black, Ma Joad goes
out into the woods and finds Tom, who has been hiding out there. She crawls
close to him and wants to touch him to remember what he looked like. She wants
to give him seven dollars to take the bus and get away. He tells her that he
has been thinking about Casy, and remembered how Casy said that he went out
into the woods searching for his soul, but only found that he had no individual
soul, but rather part of a larger one. Tom has been wondering why people can't
work together for their living, and vows to do what Casy had done. He leaves,
but promises to return to the family when everything has blown over. As she
left, Ma Joad did not cry, but rain began to fall. When she returned to the boxcar,
she meets Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright, who have come to talk to the Joads about
their daughter, Aggie, who has been spending time with Al. They're worried that
the two families will part and then find out that Aggie is pregnant. Ma tells
them that she found Tom and that he is gone. Pa laments leaving Oklahoma, while
Ma says that women can deal with change better than a man, because women have
their lives in their arms, and men have it in their heads. For women, change is
more acceptable because it seems inevitable. Al and Aggie return to the boxcar,
and they announce that they are getting married. They go out before dawn to
pick cotton before everyone else can get the rest, and Rose of Sharon vows to
go with them, even though she can barely move. When they get to the place where
the cotton is being picked, there are already a number of families. While
picking cotton, it suddenly starts to rain, causing Rose of Sharon to fall ill.
Everybody assumes that she is about to deliver, but she instead suffers from a
chill. They take her back to the boxcar and start a fire to get her warm.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The migrant families wondered how long the
rain would last. The rain damaged cars and penetrated tents. During the rain
storms some people went to relief offices, but there were rules: one had to
live in California a year before he could collect relief. The greatest terror
had arrived no work would be available for three months. Hungry men crowded
the alleys to beg for bread; a number of people died. Anger festered, causing
sheriffs to swear in new deputies. There would be no work and no food.

Chapter Thirty: After three days of rain, the Wainwrights
decide that they have to keep on going. They fear that the creek will flood.
Rose of Sharon goes into labor, and the Joads cannot leave. Pa Joad and the
rest of the man at the camp build up the embankment to prevent flooding, but
the water breaks through. Pa, Al and Uncle John rush toward the car, but it
cannot start. They reach the boxcar and find that Rose of Sharon delivered a
stillborn baby. They realize that the car will eventually flood, and Mr.
Wainwright blames Pa Joad for asking them to stay and help, but Mrs. Wainwright
offers them help. She tells Ma Joad that it once was the case that family came
first. Now they have greater concerns. Uncle John places the dead baby in an
apple box and floats it down the flooded stream as Al and build a platform on
the top of the car. As the flood waters rise, the family remains on the
platform. The family finds a barn for refuge until the rain stops. In the
corner of the barn there are a starving man and a boy. Ma and Rose of Sharon
realize what she must do. Ma makes everybody leave the barn, while Rose of
Sharon gives the dying man her breast milk.

The Great
Gatsby

Summary

Chapter One: The novel begins with a personal note by the narrator, Nick
Carraway. He relates that he has a tendency to reserve all judgments against
people and that he has been conditioned to be understanding toward those who
haven't had his advantages. Carraway came from a prominent family from the
Midwest, graduated from Yale and fought in the Great War. After the war and a
period of restlessness, he decided to go East to learn the bond business. At
the book's beginning, Carraway has just arrived in New York, living in West Egg
village. He was going to have dinner with Tom Buchanan and his wife Daisy. Tom
was an enormously wealthy man and a noted football player at Yale, and Daisy
was Carraway's second cousin. Jordan mentions that, since Carraway lives in
West Egg, he must know Gatsby. Another woman, Jordan Baker, is also there. She
tells Nick that Tom is having an affair with some woman in New York. Tom
discusses the book "The Rise of the Colored Empires," which claims
that the colored races will submerge the white race eventually. Daisy talks to
Carraway alone, and claims that she has become terribly cynical and
sophisticated. After visiting with the Buchanans, Carraway goes home to West
Egg, where he sees Gatsby come from his mansion alone, looking at the sea. He
stretches out his arms toward the water, looking at a faraway green light.

Chapter Two: Fitzgerald begins this second chapter with the description of a
road running between West Egg and New York City. A large, decaying billboard
showing two eyes (advertising an optometrist's practice) overlooks the desolate
area. It is here, at a gas station, where Tom Buchanan introduces Nick Carraway
to Myrtle Wilson, the woman with whom he is having an affair. Myrtle herself is
married to George B. Wilson, an auto mechanic. Tom has Myrtle meet them in the
city, where Tom buys her a dog. They go to visit Myrtle's sister and also visit
her neighbors, Catherine McKee and her husband, who is an artist. They gossip
about Gatsby, and Myrtle discusses her husband, claiming that she was crazy to
marry him, and how she met Tom. Later, Myrtle and Tom argue about whether or
not she has a right to say Daisy's name, and he breaks Myrtle's nose.

Chapter Three: Nick Carraway describes the customs of Gatsby's weekly parties:
the arrival of crates of oranges and lemons, a corps of caterers and a large
orchestra. On the first night that Carraway visits Gatsby's house, he was one
of the few guests who had actually been invited. When he arrives, he sees
Jordan Baker, who had recently lost a golf tournament. They hear more gossip
about Jay Gatsby he supposedly killed a man, or was a German spy. Jordan and
Nick look through Gatsby's library, where she thinks that his books are not
real. Later in the party, a man who recognized Nick from the war talks to him
Nick does not know that it is Gatsby. Suddenly, after he identifies himself,
Gatsby gets a phone call from Chicago. Afterwards, Gatsby asks to speak to
Jordan Baker alone. When she finishes talking to Gatsby, she tells Nick that
she heard the most amazing thing and says that she wishes to see him. Guests
leaving the party have a car wreck in Gatsby's driveway. This was merely one
event in a crowded summer. Carraway, who spent most of his time working, began
to like New York. For a while he lost sight of Jordan Baker. He was not in love
with her, but had some curiosity toward her.

Chapter Four: At a Sunday morning party at Gatsby's, young women gossip about
Gatsby (he's a bootlegger who killed a man who found out that he was a nephew
to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil). One morning Gatsby comes to
take Nick for lunch. He shows off his car: it had a rich cream color and was
filled with boxes from Gatsby's purchases. Gatsby asks Nick what his opinion of
him is, and Nick is evasive. Gatsby gives his story: he is the son of wealthy
people in the Middle West, brought up in America and educated at Oxford.
Carraway does not believe him, for he chokes on his words. Gatsby continues: he
lived in the capitals of Europe, then enlisted in the war effort, where he was
promoted to major and given a number of declarations (from every Allied
government, even Montenegro). Gatsby admits that he usually finds himself among
strangers because he drifts from here to there, and that something happened to
him that Jordan Baker will tell Nick at lunch. They drive out past the valley
of ashes and Nick even glimpses Myrtle Wilson. When Gatsby is stopped for
speeding, he flashes a card to the policeman, who then does not give him a
ticket.

At lunch, Gatsby introduces Carraway to Meyer Wolfsheim, a small,
flat-nosed Jew. He talks of the days at the Metropole when they shot Rosy
Rosenthal, and proudly mentions his cufflinks, which are made from human molars.
Wolfsheim is a gambler, the man who fixed the 1919 World Series. Tom Buchanan
is also there, and Nick introduces him to Gatsby, who appears quite
uncomfortable and then suddenly disappears. Jordan Baker tells the story about
Gatsby: Back in 1917, Daisy was eighteen and Jordan sixteen. They were
volunteering with the Red Cross, making bandages, and Daisy asked Jordan to
cover for her that day. She was meeting with Jay Gatsby, and there were wild
rumors that she was going to run off to New York with him. On Daisy's wedding
day to Tom, she nearly changes her mind, and goes into hysterics. According to
Jordan, Gatsby bought his house just to be across the bay from Daisy. Nick
becomes more drawn to Jordan, with her scornful and cynical manner. Jordan
tells Nick that he is supposed to arrange a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy.

Chapter Five: Nick speaks with Gatsby about arranging a meeting with Daisy, and
tries to make it as convenient for Nick as possible. Gatsby even offers him a
job, a "confidential sort of thing," although he assures Nick that he
would not have to work with Wolfsheim. On the day that Gatsby and Daisy are to
meet, Gatsby has arranged everything to perfection. They start at Nick's home,
where the conversation between the three (Nick, Gatsby, Daisy) is stilted and
awkward. They are all embarrassed, and Nick tells Gatsby that he's behaving
like a little boy. They go over to Gatsby's house, where Gatsby gives a tour.
Nick asks Gatsby more questions about his business, and he snaps back
"that's my affair," before giving a half-hearted explanation. Gatsby
shows Daisy newspaper clippings about his exploits, and has Ewing Klipspringer,
a boarder, play the piano for them. One of the notable mementos that Gatsby
shows Daisy is a photograph of him with Dan Cody, his closest friend, on a
yacht. As they leave, Carraway realizes that there must have been moments when
Daisy disappointed Gatsby during the afternoon, for his dreams and illusions
had been built up to such grandiose levels.

Chapter Six: On a vague hunch, a reporter comes to Gatsby's home asking him if
he had a statement to give out. The actual story of Gatsby is revealed: he was
born James Gatz in North Dakota. He had his named legally changed at the age of
seventeen. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people, and the young
man was consumed by fancies of what he might achieve. His life changed when he
rowed out to Dan Cody's yacht on Lake Superior. Cody was then fifty, a product
of the Nevada silver fields and of the Yukon gold rush. Cody took Gatsby in and
brought him to the West Indies and the Barbary Coast as a personal assistant.
When Cody died, Gatsby inherited $25,000, but didn't get it because Cody's
mistress, Ella Kaye, claimed all of it. Gatsby told Nick this much later.

Nick had not seen Gatsby for several weeks when he went over to
his house. Tom Buchanan arrived there. He had been horseback riding with a
woman and a Mr. Sloane. Gatsby invites the group to supper, but the lady
counters with an offer of supper at her home. Mr. Sloane seems quite opposed to
the idea, so Nick turns down the offer, but Gatsby accepts. Tom complains about
the crazy people that Daisy meets, presumably meaning Gatsby. On the following
Saturday Tom accompanies Daisy to Gatsby's party. Tom is unpleasant and rude
during the evening. Tom suspects that Gatsby is a bootlegger, since he is one
of the new rich. After the Buchanans leave, Gatsby is disappointed, thinking
that Daisy surely did not enjoy herself. Nick realizes that Gatsby wanted
nothing less of Daisy than that she should tell Tom that she never loved him.
Nick tells Gatsby that he can't ask too much of Daisy, and that "you can't
repeat the past," to which Gatsby replies: "Of course you can!"

Chapter Seven: It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that he
failed to give a Saturday night party. Nick goes over to see if Gatsby is sick,
and learns that Gatsby had dismissed every servant in his house and replaced
them with a half dozen others who would not gossip, for Daisy had been visiting
in the afternoons. Daisy invites Gatsby, Nick and Jordan to lunch. At the
lunch, Tom is supposedly on the telephone with Myrtle Wilson. Daisy shows of
her daughter, who is dressed in white, to her guests. Tom claims that he read
that the sun is getting hotter and soon the earth will fall into it or rather
that the sun is getting colder. Daisy makes an offhand remark that she loves
Gatsby, which Tom overhears. When Tom goes inside to get a drink, Nick remarks
that Daisy has an indiscreet voice. Gatsby says that her voice is "full of
money." They all go to town: Nick and Jordan in Tom's car, Daisy in
Gatsby's. On the way, Tom tells Nick that he has investigated Gatsby, who is
certainly no Oxford man, as is rumored. They stop to get gas at Wilson's
garage. Mr. Wilson wants to buy Tom's car, for he has financial troubles and he
and Myrtle want to go west. Wilson tells Tom that he "just got wised
up" to something recently, the reason why he and Myrtle want to get away.

While leaving the garage, they see Myrtle peering down at the car
from her window. Her expression was one of jealous terror toward Jordan Baker,
whom she took to be his wife.

Feeling that both his wife and mistress are slipping away from
him, Tom feels panicked and impatient. To escape from the summer heat, they go
to a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom begins to confront Gatsby, irritated at his
constant use of the term "old sport." Tom attempts to expose Gatsby
as a liar concerning Gatsby's experience at Oxford. Tom rambles on about the
decline of civilization, and how there may even be intermarriage between races.
Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy doesn't love him, and never loved him the only
reason why she married him was because Gatsby was poor and Daisy was tired of
waiting. Daisy hints that there has been trouble in her and Tom's past, and
then tells Tom that she never loved him. However, she does concede that she did
love Tom once. Gatsby tells Tom that he is not going to take care of Daisy
anymore and that Daisy is leaving him. Tom calls Gatsby a "common
swindler" and a bootlegger involved with Meyer Wolfsheim. Nick realizes
that today is his thirtieth birthday.

The young Greek, Michaelis, who ran the coffee joint next to
Wilson's garage was the principal witness at the inquest. While Wilson and his
wife were fighting, she ran out in the road and was hit by a light green car.
She was killed. Tom and Nick learn this when they drive past on their way back
from the city. Tom realizes that it was Gatsby who hit Myrtle. When Nick
returns home, he sees Gatsby, who explains what happened. Daisy was driving the
car when they hit Myrtle.

Chapter Eight: Nick cannot sleep that night. Toward
dawn he hears a taxi go up Gatsby's drive, and he immediately feels that he has
something to warn Gatsby about. Gatsby is still there, watching Daisy's mansion
across the bay. Nick warns him to get away for a week, since his car will
inevitably be traced, but he refuses to consider it. He cannot leave Daisy
until he knew what she would do. It was then when Gatsby told his entire
history to Nick. Gatsby still refuses to believe that Daisy ever loved Tom.
After the war Gatsby searched for Daisy, only to find that she had married Tom.
Nick leaves reluctantly, having to go to work that morning. Before he leaves,
Nick tells Gatsby that he's "worth the whole damn bunch put
together." At work, Nick gets a call from Jordan, and they have a tense
conversation.

That day Michaelis goes to comfort Wilson, who is convinced that
his wife was murdered. He had found the dog collar that Tom had bought Myrtle
hidden the day before, which prompted their sudden decision to move west. Wilson
looks out at the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg and tells Michaelis that "God sees
everything." Wilson left, "acting crazy" (according to
witnesses), and found his way to Gatsby's house. Gatsby had gone out to the
pool for one last swim before draining it for the fall. Wilson shot him, and
then shot himself.

Chapter Nine: Most of the reports of the murder were grotesque and untrue. Nick
finds himself alone on Gatsby's side. Tom and Daisy suddenly left town. Meyer
Wolfsheim is difficult to contact, and offers assistance, but cannot become too
involved because of current entanglements. Nick tracks down Gatsby's father,
Henry C. Gatz, a solemn old man, helpless and dismayed by news of the murder.
Gatz says that his son would have "helped build up the country."
Klipspringer, the boarder, leaves suddenly and only returns to get his tennis
shoes. Nick goes to see Wolfsheim, who claims that he made Gatsby. He tells
Nick "let he learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and
not after he is dead," and politely refuses to attend the funeral. Gatz
shows Nick his son's daily schedule, in which he has practically every minute
of his day planned. He had a continual interest in self-improvement. At the
funeral, one of the few attendees is the Owl-Eyed man from Gatsby's first
party. Nick thinks about the differences between the west and the east, and
realizes that he, the Buchanans, Gatsby and Jordan are all Westerners who came
east, perhaps possessing some deficiency which made them unadaptable to Eastern
life. After Gatsby's death the East was haunted and distorted. He meets with
Jordan Baker, who recalls their conversation about how bad drivers are
dangerous only when two of them meet. She tells Nick that the two of them are
both 'bad drivers.' Months later Nick saw Tom Buchanan, and Nick scorns him,
knowing that he pointed Wilson toward Gatsby. Nick realizes that all of Tom's
actions were, to him, justified. Nick leaves New York to return West.

Fitzgerald concludes the
novel with a final note on Gatsby's beliefs. It is this particular aspect of
his character his optimistic belief in achievement and the ability to attain
one's dreams that defines Gatsby, in contrast to the compromising cynicism of
his peers. Yet the final symbol contradicts and deflates the grand optimism
that Gatsby held. Fitzgerald ends the book with the sentence "So we beat
on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past," which
contradicts Gatsby's fervent belief that one can escape his origins and rewrite
his past.

Act I, Part One The play begins in August,
1912, at the summer home of the Tyrone family. The setting for all four acts is
the family's living room, which is adjacent to the kitchen and dining room.
There is also a staircase just off stage, which leads to the upper-level
bedrooms. It is 8:30 am, and the family has just finished breakfast in the
dining room. While Jamie and Edmund,Tyrone enter and embrace, and Mary comments
on being pleased with her recent weight gain even though she is eating less
food.

Tyrone and Mary make conversation,
which leads to a brief argument about Tyrone's tendency to spend money on real
estate investing. They are interrupted by the sound of Edmund, who is having a
coughing fit in the next room. Although Mary remarks that he merely has a bad
cold, Tyrone's body language indicates that he may know more about Edmund's
sickness than Mary. Nevertheless, Tyrone tells Mary that she must take care of
herself and focus on getting better rather than getting upset about Edmund.
Mary immediately becomes defensive, saying, "There's nothing to be upset
about. What makes you think I'm upset?" Tyrone drops the subject and tells
Mary that he is glad to have her "dear old self" back again.

Edmund and Jamie are heard laughing in
the next room, and Tyrone immediately grows bitter, assuming they are making
jokes about him. Edmund and Jamie enter, and we see that, even though he is
just 23 years old, Edmund is "plainly in bad health" and nervous.
Upon entering, Jamie begins to stare at his mother, thinking that she is
looking much better. The conversation turns spiteful, however, when the sons
begin to make fun of Tyrone's loud snoring, a subject about which he is sensitive,
driving him to anger. Edmund tells him to calm down, leading to an argument
between the two. Tyrone then turns on Jamie, attacking him for his lack of
ambition and laziness. To calm things down, Edmund tells a funny story about a
tenant named Shaughnessy on the Tyrone family land in Ireland, where the
family's origins lie. Tyrone is not amused by the anecdote, however, because he
could be the subject of a lawsuit related to ownership of the land. He attacks
Edmund again, calling his comments socialist. Edmund gets upsets and exits in a
fit of coughing. Jamie points out that Edmund is really sick, a comment which Tyrone
responds to with a "shut up" look, as though trying to prevent Mary
from finding out something. Mary tells them that, despite what any doctor may
say, she believes that Edmund has nothing more than a bad cold. Mary has a deep
distrust for doctors. Tyrone and Jamie begin to stare at her again, making her
self-conscious. Mary reflects on her faded beauty, recognizing that she is in
the stages of decline.

As Mary exits, Tyrone chastises Jamie
for suggesting that Edmund really may be ill in front of Mary, who is not
supposed to worry during her recovery from her addiction to morphine. Jamie and
Tyrone both suspect that Edmund has consumption (better known today as
tuberculosis), and Jamie thinks it unwise to allow Mary to keep fooling
herself. Jamie and Tyrone argue over Edmund's doctor, Doc Hardy, who charges
very little for his services. Jamie accuses Tyrone of getting the cheapest
doctor, without regard to quality, simply because he is a penny-pincher. Tyrone
retorts that Jamie always thinks the worst of everyone, and that Jamie does not
understand the value of a dollar because he has always been able to take
comfortable living for granted. Tyrone, by contrast, had to work his own way up
from the streets. Jamie only squanders loads of money on whores and liquor in
town. Jamie argues back that Tyrone squanders money on real estate speculation,
although Tyrone points out that most of his holdings are mortgaged. Tyrone
accuses Jamie of laziness and criticizes his failure to succeed at anything. Jamie
was expelled from several colleges in his younger years, and he never shows any
gratitude towards his father; Tyrone thinks that he is a bad influence on
Edmund. Jamie counters that he has always tried to teach Edmund to lead a life
different from that which Jamie leads.

Act I, Part Two Tyrone and Jamie continue
their discussion about Edmund, who works for a local newspaper. Tyrone and
Jamie have heard that some editors dislike Edmund, but they both acknowledge
that he has a strong creative impulse that drives much of his plans. Tyrone and
Jamie agree also that they are glad to have Mary back. They resolve to help her
in any way possible, and they decide to keep the truth about Edmund's sickness
from her, although they realize that they will not be able to do so if Edmund
has to be committed to a sanatorium, a place where tuberculosis patients are
treated. Tyrone and Jamie discuss Mary's health, and Tyrone seems to be fooling
himself into thinking that Mary is healthier than she really is. Jamie mentions
that he heard her walking around the spare bedroom the night before, which may
be a sign that she is taking morphine again. Tyrone says that it was simply his
snoring that induced her to leave; he accuses Jamie once again of always trying
to find the worst in any given situation.

Between the lines, we begin to learn
that Mary first became addicted to morphine 23 years earlier, just after giving
birth to Edmund. The birth was particularly painful for her, and Tyrone hired a
very cheap doctor to help ease her pain. The economical but incompetent doctor
prescribed morphine to Mary, recognizing that it would solve her immediate pain
but ignoring potential future side effects, such as addiction. Thus we see that
Tyrone's stinginess (or prudence, as he would call it), has come up in the
past, and it will be referred to many more times during the course of the play.

Mary enters just as Tyrone and Jamie
are about to begin a new argument. Not wishing to upset her, they immediately
cease and decide to go outside to trim the hedges. Mary asks what they were
arguing about, and Jamie tells her that they were discussing Edmund's doctor,
Doc Hardy. Mary says she knows that they are lying to her. The two stare at her
again briefly before exiting, with Jamie telling her not to worry. Edmund then
enters in the midst of a coughing fit and tells Mary that he feels ill. Mary
begins to fuss over him, although Edmund tells her to worry about herself and
not him. Mary tells Edmund that she hates the house in which they live because,
"I've never felt it was my home." She puts up with it only because
she usually goes along with whatever Tyrone wants. She criticizes Edmund and Jamie
for "disgracing" themselves with loose women, so that at present no
respectable girls will be seen with them. Mary announces her belief that Jamie
and Edmund are always cruelly suspicious, and she thinks that they spy on her.
She asks Edmund to "stop suspecting me," although she acknowledges
that Edmund cannot trust her because she has broken many promises in the past.
She thinks that the past is hard to forget because it is full of broken
promises. The act ends with Edmund's exit. Mary sits alone, twitching nervously.

Act II, Scene i The curtain rises again on
the living room, where Edmund sits reading. It is 12:45 pm on the same August
day. Cathleen, the maid, enters with whiskey and water for pre-lunch drinking.
Edmund asks Cathleen to call Tyrone and Jamie for lunch. Cathleen is chatty and
flirty, and tells Edmund that he is handsome. Jamie soon enters and pours
himself a drink, adding water to the bottle afterwards so that Tyrone will not
know they had a drink before he came in. Tyrone is still outside, talking to
one of the neighbors and putting on "an act" with the intent of
showing off. Jamie tells Edmund that Edmund may have a sickness more severe
than a simple case of malaria. He then chastises Edmund for leaving Mary alone
all morning. He tells him that Mary's promises mean nothing anymore. Jamie
reveals that he and Tyrone knew of Mary's morphine addiction as much as ten
years before they told Edmund.

Edmund begins a coughing fit as Mary
enters, and she tells him not to cough. When Jamie makes a snide comment about
his father, Mary tells him to respect Tyrone more. She tells him to stop always
seeking out the weaknesses in others. She expresses her fatalistic view of
life, that most events are somehow predetermined, that humans have little
control over their own lives. She then complains that Tyrone never hires any
good servants; she is displeased with Cathleen, and she blames her unhappiness
on Tyrone's refusal to hire a top-rate maid. At this point, Cathleen enters and
tells them that Tyrone is still outside talking. Edmund exits to fetch him, and
while he is gone, Jamie stares at Mary with a concerned look. Mary asks why he
is looking at her, and he tells her that she knows why. Although he will not
say it directly, Jamie knows that Mary is back on morphine; he can tell by her
glazed eyes. Edmund reenters and curses Jamie when Mary, playing ignorant,
tells him that Jamie has been insinuating nasty things about her. Mary prevents
an argument by telling Edmund to blame no one. She again expresses her fatalist
view: "[Jamie] can't help what the past has made him. Any more than your
father can. Or you. Or I." Jamie shrugs off all accusations, and Edmund
looks suspiciously at Mary.

Tyrone enters, and he argues briefly
with his two sons about the whiskey. They all have a large drink. Suddenly,
Mary has an outburst about Tyrone's failure to understand what a home is. Mary
has a distinct vision of a home, one that Tyrone has never been able to provide
for her. She tells him that he should have remained a bachelor, but then she
drops the subject so that they can begin lunch. However, she first criticizes
Tyrone for letting Edmund drink, saying that it will kill him. Suddenly feeling
guilty, she retracts her comments. Jamie and Edmund exit to the dining room.
Tyrone sits staring at Mary, then says that he has "been a God-damned fool
to believe in you." She becomes defensive and begins to deny Tyrone's
unspoken accusations, but he now knows that she is back on morphine. She
complains again of his drinking before the scene ends.

Act II, Scene ii The scene begins half an
hour after the previous scene. The family is returning from lunch in the dining
room. Tyrone appears angry and aloof, while Edmund appears
"heartsick." Mary and Tyrone argue briefly about the nature of the
"home," although Mary seems somewhat aloof while she speaks because
she is on morphine. The phone rings, and Tyrone answers it. He talks briefly
with the caller and agrees on a meeting at four o'clock. He returns and tells
the family that the caller was Doc Hardy, who wanted to see Edmund that
afternoon. Edmund remarks that it doesn't sound like good tidings. Mary
immediately discredits everything Doc Hardy has to say because she thinks he is
a cheap quack whom Tyrone hired only because he is inexpensive. After a brief argument,
she exits upstairs.

After she is gone, Jamie remarks that
she has gone to get more morphine. Edmund and Tyrone explode at him, telling
him not to think such bad thoughts about people. Jamie counters that Edmund and
Tyrone need to face the truth; they are kidding themselves. Edmund tells Jamie
that he is too pessimistic. Tyrone argues that both boys have forgotten
Catholicism, the only belief that is not fraudulent. Jamie and Edmund both grow
mad and begin to argue with Tyrone. Tyrone admits that he does not practice
Catholicism strictly, but he claims that he prays each morning and each
evening. Edmund is a believer in Nietzsche, who wrote that "God is
dead" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He ends the argument, however, by
resolving to speak with Mary about the drugs, and he exits upstairs.

After Edmund leaves, Tyrone tells
Jamie that Doc Hardy say that Edmund has consumption, "no possible
doubt." However, if Edmund goes to a sanatorium immediately, he will be
cured in six to 12 months. Jamie demands that Tyrone send Edmund somewhere
good, not somewhere cheap. Jamie says that Tyrone thinks consumption is
necessarily fatal, and therefore it is not worth spending money on trying to
cure Edmund since he is guaranteed to die anyway. Jamie correctly argues that
consumption can be cured if treated properly. He decides to go with Tyrone and
Edmund to the doctor that afternoon then exits.

Mary reenters as Jamie leaves, and
she tells Tyrone that Jamie would be a good son if he had been raised in a
"real" home as Mary envisions it. She tells Tyrone not to give Jamie
any money because he will use it only to but liquor. Tyrone bitterly implies
that Mary and her drug use is enough to make any man want to drink. Mary dodges
his accusation with denials, but she asks Tyrone not to leave her alone that
afternoon because she gets lonely. Tyrone responds that Mary is the one who
"leaves," referring to her mental aloofness when she takes drugs.
Tyrone suggests that Mary take a ride in the new car he bought her, which to
Tyrone's resentment does not often get used (he sees it as another waste of
money). Mary tells him that he should not have bought her a second-hand car. In
any case, Mary argues that she has no one to visit in the car, since she has
not had any friends since she got married. She alludes briefly to a scandal
involving Tyrone and a mistress at the beginning of their marriage, and this
event caused many of her friends to abandon her. Tyrone tells Mary not to dig
up the past. Mary changes the subject and tells Tyrone that she needs to go to
the drugstore.

Delving into the past, Mary tells
Tyrone the story of getting addicted to morphine when Edmund was born. She
implicitly blames Tyrone for her addiction because he would only pay for a
cheap doctor who knew of no better way to cure her childbirth pain. Tyrone
interrupts and tells her to forget the past, but Mary replies, "Why? How
can I? The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future too. We all try to
lie out of that but life won't let us." Mary blames herself for breaking
her vow never to have another baby after Eugene, her second baby who died at
two years old from measles he caught from Jamie after Jamie went into the
baby's room. Tyrone tells Mary to let the dead baby rest in peace, but Mary
only blames herself more for not staying with Eugene (her mother was
babysitting when Jamie gave Eugene measles), and instead going on the road to
keep Tyrone company as he traveled the country with his plays. Tyrone had later
insisted that Mary have another baby to replace Eugene, and so Edmund was born.
But Mary claimed that from the first day she could tell that Edmund was weak
and fragile, as though God intended to punish her for what happened to Eugene.

Edmund reenters after Mary's speech,
and he asks Tyrone for money, which Tyrone grudgingly produces. Edmund is
genuinely thankful, but then he gets the idea that Tyrone may regret giving him
money because Tyrone thinks that Edmund will die and the money will be wasted.
Tyrone is greatly hurt by this accusation, and Edmund suddenly feels very
guilty for what he said. He and his father make amends briefly before Mary
furiously tells Edmund not to be so morbid and pessimistic. She begins to cry,
and Tyrone exits to get ready to go to the doctor with Edmund. Mary again
criticizes Doc Hardy and tells Edmund not to see him. Edmund replies that Mary
needs to quit the morphine, which puts Mary on the defensive, denying that she
still uses and then making excuses for herself. She admits that she lies to
herself all the time, and she says that she can "no longer call my soul my
own." She hopes for redemption one day through the Virgin. Jamie and
Tyrone call Edmund, and he exits. Mary is left alone, glad that they are gone
but feeling "so lonely."

Act
III

The scene opens as usual on the
living room at 6:30 pm, just before dinner time. Mary and Cathleen are alone in
the room; Cathleen, at Mary's invitation, has been drinking. Although they
discuss the fog, it is clear that Cathleen is there only to give Mary a chance
to talk to someone. They discuss briefly Tyrone 's obsession with money, and
then Mary refuses to admit to Edmund's consumption. Mary delves into her past
memories of her life and family. As a pious Catholic schoolgirl, she says that
she never liked the theater; she did not feel "at home" with the
theater crowd. Mary then brings up the subject of morphine, which we learn
Cathleen gets for her from the local drugstore. Mary is becoming obsessed with
her hands, which used to be long and beautiful but have since deteriorated. She
mentions that she used to have two dreams: to become a nun and to become a
famous professional pianist. These dreams evaporated, however, when she met
Tyrone and fell in love. She met Tyrone after seeing him in a play. He was
friends with her father, who introduced the two. And she maintains that Tyrone
is a good man; in 36 years of marriage, he has had not one extramarital
scandal.

Cathleen then exits to see about
dinner, and Mary slowly becomes bitter as she recalls more memories. She thinks
of her happiness before meeting Tyrone. She thinks that she cannot pray anymore
because the Virgin will not listen to a dope fiend. She decides to go upstairs
to get more drugs, but before she can do so, Edmund and Tyrone return.

They immediately recognize upon
seeing her that she has taken a large dose of morphine. Mary tells them that
she is surprised they returned, since it is "more cheerful" uptown.
The men are clearly drunk, and in fact Jamie is still uptown seeing whores and drinking.
Mary says that Jamie is a "hopeless failure" and warns that he will
drag down Edmund with him out of jealousy. Mary talks more about the bad
memories from the past, and Tyrone laments that he even bothered to come home
to his dope addict of a wife. Tyrone decides to pay no attention to her. Mary
meanwhile waxes about Jamie, who she thinks was very smart until he started
drinking. Mary blames Jamie's drinking on Tyrone, calling the Irish stupid
drunks, a comment which Tyrone ignores.

Mary's tone suddenly changes as she
reminisces about meeting Tyrone. Tyrone then begins to cry as he thinks back on
the memories, and he tells his wife that he loves her. Mary responds, "I
love you dear, in spite of everything." But she regrets marrying him
because he drinks so much. Mary says she will not forget, but she will try to
forgive. She mentions that she was spoiled terribly by her father, and that
spoiling made her a bad wife. Tyrone takes a drink, but seeing the bottle has
been watered down by his sons trying to fool him into believing that they
haven't been drinking, he goes to get a new one. Mary again calls him stingy,
but she excuses him to Edmund, telling of how he was abandoned by his father
and forced to work at age 10.

Edmund then tells Mary that he has
tuberculosis, and Mary immediately begins discrediting Doc Hardy. She will not
believe it, and she does not want Edmund to go to a sanatorium. She thinks that
Edmund is just blowing things out of the water in an effort to get more
attention. Edmund reminds Mary that her own father died of tuberculosis, then
comments that it is difficult having a "dope fiend for a mother." He
exits, laving Mary alone. She says aloud that she needs more morphine, and she
admits that she secretly hopes to overdose and die, but she cannot
intentionally do so because the Virgin could never forgive suicide. Tyrone
reenters with more whiskey, noting that Jamie could not pick the lock to his
liquor cabinet. Mary suddenly bursts out that Edmund will die, but Tyrone assures
her that he will be cured in six months. Mary thinks that Edmund hated her
because she is a dope fiend. Tyrone comforts her, and Mary once again blames
herself for giving birth. Cathleen announces dinner. Mary says she is not
hungry and goes to bed. Tyrone knows that she is really going for more drugs.

Act
IV, Part One

The time is midnight, and as the act
begins a foghorn is heard in the distance. Tyrone sits alone in the living
room, drinking and playing solitaire. He is drunk, and soon Edmund enters, also
drunk. They argue about keeping the lights on and the cost of the electricity.
Tyrone acts stubborn, and Edmund accuses him of believing whatever he wants,
including that Shakespeare and Wellington were Irish Catholics. Tyrone grows
angry and threatens to beat Edmund, then retracts. He gives up and turns on all
the lights. They note that Jamie is still out at the whorehouse. Edmund has
just returned from a long walk in the cold night air even though doing so was a
bad idea for his health. He states, "To hell with sense! We're all
crazy." Edmund tells Tyrone that he loves being in the fog because it lets
him live in another world. He pessimistically parodies Shakespeare, saying,
"We are such stuff as manure is made of, so let's drink up and forget it.
That's more my idea." He quotes then from the French author Baudelaire,
saying "be always drunken." He then quotes from Baudelaire about the
debauchery in the city in reference to Jamie. Tyrone criticizes all of Edmund's
literary tastes; he thinks Edmund should leave literature for God. Tyrone
thinks that only Shakespeare avoids being an evil, morbid degenerate.

They hear Mary upstairs moving
around, and they discuss her father, who died of tuberculosis. Edmund notes
that they only seem to discuss unhappy topics together. They begin to play
cards, and Tyrone tells Jamie that even though Mary dreamed of being a nun and
a pianist, she did not have the willpower for the former or the skill for the
latter; Mary deludes herself. They hear her come downstairs but pretend not to
notice. Edmund then blames Tyrone for Mary's morphine addiction because Tyrone
hired a cheap quack. Edmund then says he hates Tyrone and blames him for Mary's
continued addiction because Tyrone never gave her a home. Tyrone defends
himself, but then Edmund says that he thinks that Tyrone believes he will die
from consumption. Edmund tells Tyrone that he, Tyrone, spends money only on
land, not on his sons. Edmund states that he will die before he will go to a
cheap sanatorium.

Tyrone brushes off his comments, saying
that Edmund is drunk. But Tyrone promises to send Edmund anywhere he wants to
make him better, "within reason." Tyrone tells Edmund that he is
prudent with money because he has always had to work for everything he has.
Edmund and Jamie, by contrast, have been able to take everything in life for
granted. Tyrone thinks that neither of his sons knows the value of money.
Edmund, delving into his deeper emotions, reminds Tyrone that he, Edmund, once
tried to commit suicide. Tyrone says that Edmund was merely drunk at the time,
but Edmund insists he was aware of his actions. Tyrone then begins to cry
lightly, telling of his destitute childhood and his terrible father. Tyrone and
Edmund, making amends, agree together on a sanatorium for Edmund, a place that is
more expensive but substantially better. Tyrone then tells Edmund of his great
theatrical mistake that prevented him from becoming widely famous: he sold out
to one particular role, and was forever more typecast, making it difficult for
him to expand his horizons and find new work. Tyrone says that he only ever
really wanted to be an artist, but his hopes were dashed when he sold out to
brief commercial success. Edmund begins laughing "at life. It's so damned
crazy," thinking of his father as an artist.

Edmund then tells some of his
memories, all of which are related to the sea. He reflects on moments when he
felt dissolved into or lost in the ocean. He thinks that there is truth and
meaning in being lost at sea, and he thinks he should have been born a "seagull
or a fish."

Act
IV, Part Two

Hearing Jamie approaching the house,
Tyrone steps into the next room. Jamie enters, drunk and slurring his speech.
He drinks more, but he will not let Edmund drink at first, for health reasons.
Jamie complains about Tyrone briefly, then learns of his agreement with Edmund.
Jamie says that he spent the evening at the whorehouse, where he paid for a fat
whore whom no one else was willing to take. Edmund attacks Jamie with a punch
when Jamie begins praising himself and berating others. Jamie thanks him
suddenly for straightening him out; he has been messed up by problems related
to Mary's addiction. He and Edmund both begin to cry as they think about their
mother. Jamie is also worried about Edmund, who may die from consumption. Jamie
says that he loves Edmund, and that in a sense he made him what he is at
present.

But Jamie also admits that he has
been a bad influence, and he says that he did it on purpose. Jamie admits that
he has always been jealous of Edmund, and he wanted Edmund to also fail. He set
a bad example intentionally and tried to bring Edmund down. He then warns
Edmund, saying, "I'll do my damnedest to make you fail," but then he
admits, "You're all I've got left." Jamie then passes out.

Tyrone then reenters, having heard
all that Jamie said. Tyrone says that he has been issuing the exact same
warning to Edmund for many years. Tyrone calls Jamie a "waste." Jamie
wakes up suddenly and argues with Tyrone. Jamie and Tyrone both pass out
briefly until they are awoken by the sound of Mary playing the piano in the
next room. The sound stops, and Mary appears. She is very pale and very clearly
on a substantial dose of morphine. Jamie begins to cry, and Tyrone angrily
cries that he will throw Jamie out of his house. Mary is hallucinating,
thinking that she is back in her childhood. She thinks that she is in a
convent. In her hands, she is holding her wedding gown, which she fished out of
the attic earlier. She does not hear anyone, and she moves like a sleepwalker.
Edmund suddenly tells Mary that he has consumption, but she tells him not to
touch her because she wants to be a nun. The three men all pour themselves more
alcohol, but before they can drink, Mary begins to speak. She tells them of her
talk with Mother Elizabeth, who told her that she should experience life out of
the convent before choosing to become a nun. Mary says that she followed that
advice, went home to her parents, met and fell in love with James Tyrone,
"and was so happy for a time." The boys sit motionless and Tyrone
stirs in his chair as the play ends.

Moby Dick

Context

Herman
Melville (1819-1891) was a popular writer of sea narratives before he wrote
Moby-Dick (1851). What was to become his best known novel, The Whale; or
Moby-Dick, received good reviews when it appeared in England, but the first
American edition, coming out a month later in New York, received mixed reviews.
It was not a financial success and bafied American critics until the 20th
century, when it began to be considered a classic.

Melville
was not recognized as a genius in his time; his most famous works
today{Moby-Dick, short stories like "Benito Cereno," and Billy
Budd{were not widely read or heralded in the 19th century.

Melville's
America was a tumultuous place. In the North, rapid industrialization was
changing social patterns and giving rise to new wealth. In the South, the
cotton interest was trying to hold onto the system of black slavery.

America
was stretching westward, and encountering Native American tribes, as travel by
train, road, sea, and canal become easier than before. Politicians appealed to
the masses as the idea of "democracy" (versus republicanism) took
hold. Nationalism was high in the early nineteenth century, but as national
interconnectedness became more feasible, the deep divisions in society began to
grow. Soon, sectionalism, racism, economic self-interest, and bitter political
struggle would culminate in the Civil War.

Against
this backdrop, Melville sailed off on his first whaling voyage in 1841. This experience
became the material for his first book, Typee (1846), a narrative that
capitalized on exotic titillation about natives in the Marquesas Islands.
Becoming well known for his earthy, rowdy stories of faraway places, he quickly
followed his initial success with Omoo (1847) and Mardi (1849).

But
after Mardi, Melville's writing career started to level off. Though Melville
had once thought he could be a professional writer, Moby-Dicks poor reviews
meant that Melville would never be able to support himself by writing alone.
Melville was always firmly middle-class, though his personas in books always
seemed working-class. He had a distinguished pedigree: some of his ancestors
were Scottish and Dutch settlers of New York who played leading roles in the
American Revolution and commercial development. But Melville often felt like
the "savage" in the family, which may have explained why he was not
afraid to tackle such risky topics as slave revolt (in "Benito
Cereno") or the life-sucking potential of offce jobs ("Bartleby the
Scrivener").

Throughout
his life, Melville was an avid reader. Much of his information for Moby-Dick
comes from printed sources. The number of refer

ences
to difierent texts (intertextuality) in Moby-Dick testifies to the importance
of books in Melville's life. In particular, he admired Nathaniel Hawthorne,
whom he befriended in 1850 and to whom Melville dedicated the novel. Melville
admired Hawthorne's willingness to dive to deep psychological depths and gothic
grimness, traits for which he would also be praised.

The
works of Shakespeare and stories in the Bible (especially the Old Testament)
also in uenced Moby-Dick. Moreover, Melville's novel was certainly not the
first book on whaling. Whaling narratives were extremely popular in the 19th century.
In particular, Melville relied on the encyclopedic Natural History of the Sperm
Whale by Thomas Beale and the narrative Etchings of a Whaling Cruise by J. Ross
Browne. He also used information from a volume by William Scoresby, but mostly
to ridicule Scoresby's pompous inaccuracy. One final note: many editions of
Moby-Dick have been printed. Check your edition before using this guide,
because "abridged" or "edited" versions may be difierent.

Characters

Ishmael
{ Ishmael is the narrator of the story, but not really the center of it. He has
no experience with whaling when he signs on and he is often comically
extravagant in his storytelling. Ishmael bears the same name as a famous
castaway in the Bible.

Ahab
{ The egomaniacal captain of the whalingship Pequod; his leg was taken off by
Moby Dick, the white whale. He searches frantically for the whale, seeking
revenge, and forces his crew to join him in the pursuit.

Starbuck
{ This native of Nantucket is the first mate of the Pequod. Starbuck questions
his commander's judgment, first in private and later in public.

Queequeg
{ Starbuck's stellar harpooner and Ishmael's best friend, Queequeg was once a
prince from a South Sea island who wanted to have a worldly adventure. Queequeg
is a composite character, with an identity that is part African, Polynesian,
Islamic, Christian, and Native American.

Stubb
{ This native of Cape Cod is the second mate of the Pequod and always has a bit
of mischievous good humor.

Moby
Dick { The great white sperm whale; an infamous and dangerous threat to seamen
like Ahab and his crew.

Tashtego
{ Stubb's harpooneer, Tashtego is a Gay Head Indian from Martha's Vineyard.

Flask
{ This native of Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard is the third mate of the Pequod.
Short and stocky, he has a confrontational attitude and no reverence for
anything.

Pip
{ Either from Connecticut or Alabama (there is a discrepancy), Pip used to play
the tambourine and take care of the ship. After being left to oat on the sea
alone for a short period of time, he becomes mystically wise{or possibly loses
his mind.

Fedallah
{ Most of the crew doesn't know until the first whale chase that Ahab has
brought on board this strange "oriental" old man who is a Parsee
(Persian fire-worshipper). Fedallah has a very striking appearance: around his
head is a turban made from his own hair, and he wears a black Chinese jacket
and pants. Like Queequeg, Fedallah's character is also a composite of Middle
Eastern and East Asian traits.

Peleg
{ This well-to-do retired whaleman of Nantucket is one of the largest owners of
the Pequod who, with Captain Bildad, takes care of hiring the crew. When the
two are negotiating wages for Ishmael and Queequeg, Peleg plays the generous
one. He is a Quaker.

Bildad
{ Also a well-to-do Quaker ex-whaleman from Nantucket who owns a large share of
the Pequod, Bildad is (or pretends to be) crustier than Peleg in negotiations
over wages.

Father
Mapple { The preacher in the New Bedford Whaleman's Chapel. He delivers a
sermon on Jonah and the whale.

Captain
Boomer { Boomer is the jovial captain of the English whalingship Samuel
Enderby; his arm was taken off by Moby Dick

Introduction

Summary

These
prefatory sections establish the groundwork for a new book about whaling.
Melville quotes from a variety of sources, revered, famous, and obscure, that
may directly address whaling or only mention a whale in passing. The quotations
include short passages from the Bible, Shakespeare, John Milton's epic poem
Paradise Lost (1667), other well-known poems, dictionaries, whaling and travel
narratives, histories, and songs. The Etymology section, looking at the
derivations of "whale," is compiled by a "late consumptive usher
to a grammar school," and the Extracts section, a selection of short
quotations describing whales or whaling, by a "sub-sub-librarian."

Melville's
humor comes through in these sections, both in the way he pokes fun at the
"poor devil of a Sub-Sub" and mentions even the tiniest reference to
a whale in these literary works.

Chapters
1-9

Summary

The
story begins with one of the most famous opening lines in literary history:
"Call me Ishmael." Whatever Ishmael's "real" name, his
adopted name signals his identification with the Biblical outcast from the Book
of Genesis.

He
explains that he went to sea because he was feeling a "damp, drizzly
November in [his] soul" and wanted some worldly adventure. In the mood for
old-fashioned whaling, Ishmael heads to New Bedford, the current center of
whaling, to catch a ferry to Nantucket, the previous center of whaling.

After
wandering through the black streets of New Bedford, he finally stumbles upon
The Spouter-Inn, owned by Peter Coffn. First passing by a large, somewhat
inscrutable oil painting and a collection of "monstrous clubs and
spears," Ishmael walks into a room filled with "a wild set of
mariners." Because the inn is nearly full, Ishmael learns that he will
have to share a room with "a dark complexioned" harpooner named Queequeg.
At first, Ishmael decides that he would rather sleep on a bench than share a
bed with some strange, possibly dangerous man. But, discovering the bench to be
too uncomfortable, he decides to put up with the unknown harpooner, who, Coffn
assures him, is perfectly fine because "he pays reg'lar." Still,
Ishmael is worried since Coffn tells him that the harpooner has recently
arrived from the South Sea and peddles shrunken heads. When the Queequeg
finally returns, the frightened Ishmael watches Queequeg from the bed, noting
with a little horror the harpooner's tattoos, tomahawk/pipe, and dark-colored
idol.

When
Queequeg finally discovers Ishmael in his bed, he ourishes the tomahawk as
Ishmael shouts for the owner. After Coffn explains the situation, they settle
in for the night and, when they wake up, Queequeg's arm is affectionately
thrown over Ishmael. Ishmael is sorry for his prejudices against the
"cannibal," finding Queequeg quite civilized, and they become fast,
close friends.

The
chapters called The Street, The Chapel, The Pulpit, and The Sermon establish
the atmosphere in which Ishmael sets out on his whaling mission.

Because
of its maritime industry, New Bedford is a cosmopolitan town, full of difierent
sorts of people (Lascars, Malays, Feegeeans, Tongatabooans, Yankees, and green
Vermonters). In this town is the Whaleman's Chapel, where the walls are
inscribed with memorials to sailors lost at sea and the pulpit is like a ship's
bow. The preacher in this chapel, Father Mapple, is a favorite among whalemen
because of his sincerity and sanctity. Once a sailor and harpooner, Mapple now
delivers sermons. His theme for this Sunday: Jonah, the story of the prophet
swallowed by "a great fish." (Today we talk about "Jonah and the
Whale.") Mapple preaches a story about man's sin, willful disobedience of
the command of God, and ight from Him. But, says Mapple, the story also speaks
to him personally as a command "To preach the Truth in the face of
Falsehood!" with a confidence born from knowing God's will.

Chapters
10-21

Summary

In
these chapters we learn more about the relationship between Ishmael and
Queequeg. Upon third consideration, Ishmael develops a great respect for his
new friend. Although still a "savage," Queequeg becomes, in Ishmael's
mind, "George Washington cannibalistically developed." Furthermore,
after having intimate chats with him in bed, Ishmael admires Queequeg's
sincerity and lack of Christian "hollow courtesies." Quick friends,
they are "married" after a social smoke. The chapter called Biographical
gives more information on Queequeg's past, detailing the harpooner's life as a
son of a High Chief or King of Kokovoko. Intent on seeing the world, he paddled
his way to a departing ship and persisted so stubbornly that they finally
allowed him to stow away as a whaleman. Queequeg can never go back because his
interaction with Christianity has made him unfit to ascend his homeland's
"pure and undefiled throne" and so, says Ishmael, "that barbed
iron [a harpoon] was in lieu of a sceptre now."

Together,
they set off with a wheelbarrow full of their things for Nantucket. On the
packet over to Nantucket, a bumpkin mimics Queequeg.Queequeg ips him around to
punish him, and is subsequently scolded by the captain. But when the bumpkin is
swept overboard as the ship has technical dificulties, Queequeg takes charge of
the ropes to secure the boat and then dives into the water to save the man
overboard. This action wins everyone's respect.

Melville
then writes a bit about Nantucket's history, about the "red-men"who
first settled there, its ecology, its dependence on the sea for livelihood.

When
the two companions arrive, they have a pot of the best chowder at the Try Pots.
Charged by Yojo (Queequeg's wooden idol) to seek a ship for the two of them,
Ishmael comes upon the Pequod, a ship "with an old fashioned claw-footed
look about her" and "apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor,
his neck heavy with pendants of polished ivory." But the Pequod is not
just exotic to Ishmael; he also calls it a "cannibal of a craft"
because it is bejeweled with whale parts. On board, he makes a deal with Peleg
and Bildad, the Quaker owners of the ship, characterized as conniving
cheapskates and bitter taskmasters. Evaluating Ishmael for his lay (portion of
the ship's proffts, a whaleman's wage), Peleg finally gives him the 300th lay.
(This, Bildad says, is "generous.") At this time, Ishmael also learns
that the ship's captain is Ahab, named after a wicked and punished Biblical
king. Although Ahab has seemed a little moody since he lost his leg to the
white whale Moby Dick, Bildad and Peleg believe in his competence. Ishmael does
not meet the captain in person until much later.

Returning
to the inn, Ishmael allows Queequeg a day for his "Ramadan"
ceremonies and then becomes worried when his friend does not answer the door in
the evening. When the panicking Ishmael finally gets the door open, he finds
Queequeg deep in meditation. The next day, they return to the Pequod to sign
Queequeg up. Though the owners object at first to Queequeg's paganism, the
Kokovokan impresses them with his skill by hitting a spot of tar on a mast with
a harpoon. They give him the 90th lay, "more than ever was given a
harpooneer yet out of Nantucket." Although Bildad still tries to convert
Queequeg, Peleg tells him to give up. "Pious harpooneers never make good
voyagers { it takes the shark out of 'em; no harpooneer is worth a straw who
aint pretty sharkish."

Just
after signing the papers, the two run into a man named Elijah (a prophet, or
just some frightening stranger) who hints to them about the peril of signing
aboard Ahab's ship. They disregard him. For several days, there is preparation
for the dangerous voyage. When they are near the ship, Ishmael thinks that he
sees some "shadows" boarding the ship, but then dismisses the idea.
Elijah warns them again just before they board.

Chapters
22-31

Summary

At
Christmas, the ship finally heaves off from the port and Ishmael gets his first
taste of the rigors of whaling life. As the boat sails away from civilization,
Bulkington, a noble sailor that Ishmael saw at the Coffn inn, appears on the
Pequod's decks, and makes Ishmael wax sentimental about the heroism in sailing
into the deeps.

In
the chapter called The Advocate, Ishmael defends the whaling profession in a
series of arguments and responses. Whaling is a heroic business, he says, that
is economically crucial (for the oil) and has resulted in geographical
discovery. He finds the utmost dignity in whaling: a subject of good genealogy,
worthy enough for Biblical writers and also educational. These, he says, are
facts. He can't praise sperm whaling enough and even suggests that sperm oil
has been used to anoint kings because it is the best, purest, and sweetest.

In
the chapter called Knights and Squires, we meet the mates and their
lieutenants. The first mate, Starbuck, is a pragmatic, reliable Nantucketer.
Speaking about Starbuck leads Ishmael to carry on about the working man and
democratic equality. The pipe-smoking second mate Stubb, a native of Cape Cod,
is always cool under pressure and has "impious good humor."

Third
mate Flask, a native of Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard, is a short, stocky fellow
with a confrontational attitude and no reverence for the dignity of the whale.
He is nicknamed "King-Post" because he resembles the short, square
timber known by that name in Arctic whalers. Already introduced, Queequeg is
Starbuck's harpooner. Stubb's "squire" is Tashtego, "an unmixed
Indian from Gay Head" (Martha's Vineyard). Flask's harpooner is Daggoo,
"a gigantic, coal-black negro-savage" from Africa with an imperial
bearing.

The
rest of the crew is also mostly international. But, says Ishmael, all these
"Isolatoes" are "federated along one keel" and unified by
accompanying Ahab. Ishmael also makes small mention of Pip, a poor Alabama boy
who beats a tambourine on ship.

Ahab
finally appears on deck and Ishmael observes closely. He sees Ahab as a very
strong, willful figure, though his encounter with the whale has scarred him.
Certainly, Ahab seems a bit psychologically troubled. Ahab's relationship to
others on the boat is one of total dictatorship. When Stubb complains about
Ahab's pacing, Ahab calls him a dog and advances on him.

Stubb
retreats. The next morning, Stubb wakes up and explains to Flask that he had a
dream that Ahab kicked him with his ivory leg. (The title of this chapter,
Queen Mab, refers to Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, in which the
character Mercutio talks about weird dreams.)

Chapters
32-40

"Cetology,"
as Ishmael explains, is "the science of whales." In the Cetology
chapter and subsequent cetology- like chapters in the book, Ishmael tries to
dissect whales scientifically. After including some quotations from previous
writers on the whale, Ishmael says he here attempts a "draught"
(draft) of a whale classification system that others can revise. He divides the
whales into books and chapters (like today's Linnaean system that includes
genus and species). His first subject is the sperm whale. At the end of the
chapter, he pronounces it a "drought of a draught." The Specksynder
is another cetology-like chapter in that it tries to dissect the whaling
industry. Beginning with trivia about the changing role of the specksynder
(literally, "fat-cutter"), who used to be chief harpooneer and captain,
Ishmael moves on to a discussion of leadership styles, particularly that of
royal or imperial leaders.

The
chapter called The Cabin-Table returns to the plot, showing the ship's offcers
at dinner. This is a rigid afiair over which Ahab presides. After the offcers
finish, the table is re-laid for the harpooneers. Then Ishmael discusses his
first post on the mast-head watching for whales. He writes a history of
mast-heads and their present role on a whaling ship. Ishmael, who can rarely
stick only to one subject or one level of thinking, discusses metaphorical
meanings of what he sees. Then, in the chapter called The Quarter-Deck, he
returns to narrative plot, dramatizing Ahab's first offcial appearance before
the men. Ahab's call and response tests the crew, checking whether they know
what to do, and unites them under his leadership.

Presenting
a Spanish gold doubloon, he proclaims. "Whosoever of ye raises me a
white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye
raises me that while-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard
uke - look ye, whosoever of ye raises that same white whale, he shall have this
gold ounce, my boys!" The men cheer. Ahab then confesses, in response to
Starbuck's query, that it was indeed this white whale Moby Dick who took off
his leg, and announces his quest to hunt him down. The men shout together that
they will hunt with Ahab, though Starbuck protests.

Ahab
then begins a ritual that binds the crew together. He fills a cup with alcohol
and everyone on the ship drinks from that agon. Telling the harpooners to cross
their lances before him, Ahab grasps the weapons and anoints Queequeg,
Tashtego, and Daggoo "my three pagan kinsmen there -yon three most
honorable gentlemen and noble men." He then makes them take the iron off
of the harpoons to use as drinking goblets. They all drink together while Ahab
proclaims, "God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his
death!"

Another
chapter beginning with a stage direction, Sunset is a melancholy monologue by
Ahab. He says that everyone thinks he is mad and he agrees somewhat. He self-
consciously calls himself "demoniac" and "madness maddened."
Even though he seems to be the one orchestrating events, he does not feel in
control: "The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my
soul is grooved to run." Dusk is Starbuck's monologue. Though he feels
that it will all come out badly, he feels inextricably bound to Ahab.

When
he hears the revelry coming from the crew's forecastle, he laments the whole,
doomed voyage. First Night-Watch is Stubb's monologue, giving another
perspective on the voyage. Midnight, Forecastle is devoted to the jolly men who
take turns showing off and singing together. They get into a fight when the
Spanish Sailor makes fun of Daggoo. The onset of a storm, however, stops their
fighting and makes them tend to the ship.

Chapters
41-47

Summary

Ishmael
is meditative again, starting with a discussion of the white whale's history.
Rumors about Moby Dick are often out of control, he says, because whale
fishermen "are by all odds the most directly brought into contact with
whatever is appallingly astonishing in the sea; face to face they not only eye
its greatest marvels, but, hand to jaw, give battle to them." It is easy
to attach metaphorical meaning or make up legend about dangerously intense,
life-threatening experiences. Ishmael is skeptical, though, about assertions
that Moby Dick is immortal. He admits that there is a singular whale called
Moby Dick who is distinguished by his "peculiar snow-white wrinkled
forehead, and a high, pyramidical white hump" and that this whale is known
to have destroyed boats in a way that seems "intelligent." No wonder
Ahab hates the white whale, says Ishmael, since it does seem that Moby Dick did
it out of spite.

Intertwined
with Moby Dick's history is Ahab's personal history. When the white whale took
off Ahab's leg, the whale became to Ahab "the monomaniac incarnation of
all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they
are left living on with half a heart and half a lung."

Ahab's
reaction was to magnify the symbolism of the whale: the whale didn't just take
off his leg, but represents everything that he hates and everything that
torments him. Ahab went crazy on the trip home, says Ishmael, though he tried
to appear sane.

The
Whiteness of the Whale turns from what Moby Dick means to Ahab, to what it
means to Ishmael. Above all, he says, it is the whiteness of the whale that
appalls him. (Note Ishmael's pun{the root of the word "appall"
literally means to turn white.) Ishmael begins his cross-cultural discussion of
"whiteness" by saying how much it has been idealized as virtue or
nobility.

To
him, however, the color white only multiplies terror when it is attached with
any object "terrible" in itself.

After
a short dramatic scene (Hark!) where the sailors say to each other that they
think there may be something or someone in the after-hold, Ishmael returns to
an examination of Ahab in The Chart. Because Ahab believes that his skill with
charts will help him locate Moby Dick, Ishmael discusses how one might
scientifically track a whale. In The Afidavit, Ishmael explains in organized
form "the natural verity of the main points of this afiair." He
realizes that this story seems preposterous in many ways and wants to convince
the reader that his story is real by listing the "true" bases for
this story in quasi-outline form (first, personal experiences, then tales of
whale fishermen or collective memory, and finally books). He then looks at why
people may not believe these stories. Perhaps readers haven't heard about the
perils or vivid adventures in the whaling industry, he says. Or maybe they do
not understand the immensity of the whale. He asks that the audience use "human
reasoning" when judging his story.

The
chapter called Surmises returns the focus to Ahab, considering how the captain
will accomplish his revenge. Because Ahab must use men as his tools, Ahab has
to be very careful. How can he motivate them? Ahab can appeal to their hearts,
but also he knows that cash will keep them going.

Ahab
further knows that he has to watch that he does not leave himself open to
charges of "usurpation." That is, he has to follow standard operating
procedure, lest he give his offcers reason to overrule him.

The
Mat-Maker returns to the plot. Ishmael describes slow, dreamy atmosphere on the
ship when they are not after a whale. He and Queequeg are making a sword-mat,
and, in a famous passage, likens their weaving to work on "the Loom of
Time." (The threads of the warp are fixed like necessity.

Man
has limited free will: he can interweave his own woof crossthreads into this
fixed structure. When Queequeg's sword hits the loom and alters the overall
pattern, Ishmael calls this chance.) What jolts him out of his reverie is
Tashtego's call for a whale. Suddenly, everyone is busied in preparations for
the whale hunt. Just as they are about to push off in boats, "five dusky
phantoms" emerge around Ahab.

Chapters
48-54

Summary

These
chapters return us to the action of Moby-Dick. We meet Fedallah for the first
time, described as a dark, sinister figure with a Chinese jacket and turban
made from coiling his own hair around his head. We also meet for the first time
the "tiger-yellow ... natives of the Manillas" (Ahab's boat crew) who
were hiding in the hold of the Pequod. The other crews are staring at the newly
discovered shipmates, but Flask tells them to continue doing their jobs{that
is, to concentrate on hunting the whale.

The
Pequod's first lowering after the whale is not very successful. Queequeg
manages to get a dart in the whale but the animal overturns the boat.

The
men are nearly crushed by the ship as it passes looking for them, because a
squall has put a mist over everything.

The
chapter called The Hyena functions as a mooring of sorts{a self-conscious look
back that puts everything in perspective. In this chapter, Ishmael talks about
laughing at things, what a hyena is known for. Finding out that such dangerous
conditions are typical, Ishmael asks Queequeg to help him make his will.

Ishmael
then comments on Ahab's personal crew. Ahab's decision to have his own boat and
crew, says Ishmael, is not a typical practice in the whaling industry. But
however strange, "in a whaler, wonders soon wane" because there are
so many unconventional sights in a whaler: the sheer variety of people, the
strange ports of call, and the distance and disconnectedness of the ships
themselves from land-based, conventional society. But even though whalemen are
not easily awe-struck, Ishmael does say "that hair- turbaned Fedallah
remained a mufied mystery to the last." He is "such a creature as
civilized, domestic people in the temperate zone only see in their dreams, and
that but dimly."

Ishmael
then focuses on Fedallah. On the masthead one night, the Parsee thinks he sees
a whale spouting. The whole ship then tries to follow it, but the whale is not
seen again until some days later. Ishmael calls it a "spirit-spout"
because it seems to be a phantom leading them on. Some think it might be Moby
Dick leading the ship on toward its destruction. The ship sails around the Cape
of Good Hope (Africa), a particularly treacherous passage.

Through
it all, Ahab commands the deck robustly and even when he is down in the cabin, he
keeps his eye on the cabin-compass that tells him where the ship is going.

They
soon see a ship called "The Goney," or Albatross, a vessel with a
"spectral appearance" that is a long way from home. Of course, Ahab
asks them as they pass by, "Have ye seen the White Whale?" While the
other captain is trying to respond, a gust of wind blows the trumpet from his
mouth.

Their
wakes cross as both ships continue on. The Pequod continues its way around the
world, Ishmael worries that this is dangerous{they might just be going on in
mazes or will all be "[over]whelmed." Ishmael then explains that
these two ships did not have a "gam." A gam, according to Ishmael, is
"a social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground;
when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats' crews: the two
captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates
on the other."

The
Town-Ho's Story is a story within the larger story of Moby-Dick. During a gam
with the ship Town-Ho (which they encounter after the Goney), a white sailor on
the Town-Ho tells this story to Tashtego who shares it with all the men in the
forecastle. Ishmael announces at the beginning of the chapter that he is
telling us what he once told it to some friends in Lima. The basic story
concerns Radney, a mate from Martha's Vineyard, and Steelkilt, a sailor from
Bufialo who have a con ict on board the Town-Ho, a sperm whaler from Nantucket.
Steelkit rebels against Radney's authority, assaults the mate (after the mate
attacks him), and starts a mutiny. The mutineers are punished and released, but
Steelkilt wants revenge. The ship runs into Moby Dick and, in the process of
trying to harpoon him, Radney falls out of the boat. Moby Dick snatches him in
his jaws. Ishmael's listeners don't necessarily believe him, but he swears on a
copy of the Four Gospels that he is telling the truth.

Chapters
55-65

Summary

Here,
Melville describes poor representations of whales. To a whaleman who has
actually seen whales, many historical, mythological, and scientific sources
seem inaccurate. As a result, says Ishmael, "you must needs conclude that
the great Leviathan is the one creature in the world which must remain
unpainted to the last." The only solution Ishmael sees is to go whaling
yourself. The next chapter tries to find some acceptable depictions. To
Ishmael's taste the only things that are anywhere close are two large French
engravings from a Garneray painting that show the Sperm and Right Whales in
action. The following chapter tries to expand the discussion of representations
of whales to include whales in various media. Ishmael then talks about how
whalemen have been known to make scrimshaw. Whalemen who deal with whales so
much start seeing whales everywhere, which is why he mentions stars.

The
Brit chapter brings back the encyclopedic cetology chapter type. Brit is a
minute yellow substance upon which the Right Whale largely feeds. Ishmael uses
the chapter as a platform on which to talk about contradictory views of the sea
(frightening "universal cannibalism") and the earth ("green,
gentle, and most docile" land). Past the field of Brit in the water,
Daggoo thinks that he sights Moby Dick. It is a false alarm, however, and it is
only a giant squid.

In
preparation for a later scene, says Ishmael, he will explain the whaleline.
Made of hemp, this rope is connected to the harpoon at one end and free at the
other so that it can be tied to other boats' lines. Because it whizzes out when
a whale is darted, it is dangerous for the men in the boat.

We
then return to more action, where Stubb kills a black sperm whale. Ishmael
vigorously describes the gore to us. In The Dart, Ishmael backtracks,
describing what a harpooneer does and how he uses a dart. Freely giving his
opinion on whaling technique, Ishmael says that mates should throw both the
dart and the lance because the harpooneer should be fresh, not tired from
rowing. Then, to explain the crotch mentioned in the previous chapter, Ishmael
backtracks again to describe the notched stick that furnishes a rest for the
wooden part of the harpoon.

Ishmael
then returns to the plot: Stubb wants to eat the freshly killed whale, although
most whalemen do not. (Usually the only creatures that eat whale meat are
sharks.) He calls on the black cook Fleece to make his supper and make the
sharks stop eating the whale esh. In a sermon to the sharks, the cook tells
them that they ought to be more civilized. Stubb and the cook get into a folksy
religious discussion. He then likens Stubb to a shark. Ishmael then feels that
he must describe what whale is like as a dish. Doing a historical survey of
whale-as-dish, Ishmael remarks that no one except for Stubb and the
"Esquimaux" accept it now. Deterrents include the exceedingly rich
quality of the meat and its prodigious quantities.

Furthermore,
it seems wrong because hunting the whale makes the meat a "noble
dish" and one has to eat the meat by the whale's own light. But perhaps
this blasphemy isn't so rare, says Ishmael, since the readers probably eat beef
with a knife made from the bone of oxen or pick their teeth after eating goose
with a goose feather.

Chapters
66-73

Summary

These
chapters get into the minutiae of whaling technique. The Shark Massacre
describes how sharks often swarm around dead whale carcasses, forcing whalemen
to poke them with spades or kill them. Even when sharks are dead, they are
often still dangerous: once, when Queequeg brought one on deck for its skin, it
nearly took his hand off. There's no sacred Sabbath in whaling, since the gory
business of cutting in occurs whenever there is a kill. Cutting in involves
inserting a hook in the whale's blubber and peeling the blubber off as one
might peel off an orange rind in one strip. Discussing the whale's blubber,
Ishmael realizes that it is dificult to determine exactly what the whale's skin
is. There is something thin and isinglass-like, but that's only the skin of the
skin. If we decide that the blubber of the whale (the long pieces of which are
called "blanket-pieces") is the skin, we are still missing something
since blubber only accounts for 3/4 of the weight of the blanket-pieces. After
cutting in, the whale is then released for its "funeral" in which the
"mourners" are vultures and sharks. The frightful white carcass oats
away and a "vengeful ghost" hovers over it, deterring other ships
from going near it.

Ishmael
backtracks in The Sphynx, saying that before whalers let a carcass go, they
behead it in a "scientific anatomical feat." Ahab talks to this head,
asking it to tell him of the horrors that it has seen. But Ahab knows that it
doesn't speak and laments its inability to speak: too many horrors are beyond
utterance.

The
chapter about the Jeroboam (a ship carrying some epidemic) also backtracks,
referring back to a story Stubb heard during the gam with the Town-Ho. A man,
who had been a prophet among the Shakers in New York, proclaimed himself the
archangel Gabriel on the ship and mesmerized the crew. Captain Mayhew wanted to
get rid of him at the next port, but the crew threatened desertion. And the
sailors aboard the Pequod now see this very Gabriel in front of them. When
Captain Mayhew is telling Ahab a story about the White Whale, Gabriel keeps
interrupting. According to Mayhew, the Jeroboam first heard about the existence
of Moby Dick when they were speaking to another ship. Gabriel then warned
against killing it, calling it the Shaker God incarnated. They ran into it
about a year afterwards and the ship's leaders decided to hunt it. As the mate
was standing in the ship to throw his lance, the whale ipped the mate into the
air and tossed him into the sea. Nothing was harmed except for the mate, who
drowned. Gabriel, the entire time, had been on the mast-head and said,
basically, "I told you so." When Ahab confirms that he intends to
hunt the white whale still, Gabriel points to him, saying, "Think, think
of the blasphemer - dead, and down there! - beware of the blasphemer's
end!" Ahab then realizes that the Pequod is carrying a letter for the dead
mate and tries to hand it over to the captain on the end of a cutting-spade
pole. Somehow, Gabriel gets a hold of it, impales it on the boat-knife, and
sends it back to Ahab's feet as the Jeroboam pulls away.

Ishmael
backtracks again in The Monkey-Rope to explain how Queequeg inserts the blubber
hook. Ishmael, as Queequeg's bowsman, ties the monkey-rope around his waist as
Queequeg is on the whale's oating body trying to attach the hook. (In a
footnote, we learn that only on the Pequod were the monkey and this holder
actually tied together, an improvement introduced by Stubb.) While Ishmael
holds him, Tashtego and Daggoo are also ourishing their whale-spades to keep
the sharks away. When Dough-Boy, the steward, offers Queequeg some tepid ginger
and water, the mates frown at the in uence of pesky Temperance activists and
make the steward bring him alcohol.

Meanwhile,
as the Pequod oats along, they spot a right whale. After killing him, Stubb
asks Flask what Ahab might want with this "lump of foul lard." Flask
responds that Fedallah says that a whaler with a Sperm Whale's head on her
starboard side and a Right Whale's head on her larboard will never afterwards
capsize. They then get into a discussion in which both of them confess that
they do not like Fedallah and think of him as "the devil in
disguise." In this instance and always, Fedallah watches and stands in
Ahab's shadow. Ishmael notes that the Parsee's shadow seemed to blend with and
lengthen Ahab's.

Chapters
74-81

Summary

The
paired chapters (74 and 75) do an anatomic comparison of the sperm whale's head
and the right whale's head. In short, the sperm whale has a great well of
sperm, ivory teeth, long lower jaw, and one external spout-hole; the right
whale has bones shaped like Venetian blinds in his mouth, huge lower lip, a
tongue, and one external spout- hole. Ishmael calls the right whale stoic and
the sperm "platonian." The Battering-Ram discusses the blunt, large,
wall-like part of the head that seems to be just a "wad." In
actuality, inside the thin, sturdy casing is a "mass of tremendous
life." He goes on to explain, in The Great Heidelberg Tun (a wine cask in
Heidelberg with a capacity of 49,000 gallons), that there are two subdivisions
of the upper part of a whale's head: the Case and the junk. The Case is the
Great Heidelberg Tun since it contains the highly-prized spermaceti. Ishmael
then dramatizes the tapping of the case by Tashtego. It goes by bucket from the
"cistern" (well) once Tashtego finds the spot. In this scene,
Tashtego accidentally falls in to the case. In panic, Daggoo fouls the lines
and the head falls into the ocean. Queequeg dives in and manages to save
Tashtego.

In
The Prairie, Ishmael discusses the nineteenth-century arts of physiognomy (the
art of judging human character from facial features)and phrenology (the study
of the shape of the skull, based on the belief that it reveals character and
mental capacity). By such analyses, the sperm whale's large, clear brow gives
him the dignity of god. The whale's "pyramidical silence"
demonstrates the sperm whale's genius. But later Ishmael abandons this line of
analysis, saying that he isn't a professional. Besides, the whale wears a
"false brow" because it really doesn't have much in its skull besides
the spermy stufi. (The brain is about 10 inches big.) Ishmael then says that he
would rather feel a man's spine to know him than his skull, throwing out
phrenology. Judging by spines (which, like brains, are a network of nerves)
would discount the smallness of the whale's brain and admire the wonderful
comparative magnitude of his spinal cord. The hump becomes a sign of the
whale's indomitable spirit.

The
Jungfrau (meaning Virgin in German) is out of oil and meets the Pequod to beg
for some. Ahab, of course, asks about the White Whale, but the Jungfrau has no
information. Almost immediately after the captain of the Jungfrau steps off the
Pequod's deck, whales are sighted and he goes after them desperately. The
Pequod also gives chase and succeeds in harpooning the whale before the
Germans. But, after bringing the carcass alongside the ship, they discover that
the whale is sinking and dragging the ship along with it. Ishmael then
discusses the frequency of sinking whales.

The
Jungfrau starts chasing a fin-back, a whale that resembles a sperm whale to the
unskilled observer.

Chapter
82-92

Summary

Ishmael
strays from the main action of the plot again, diving into the heroic history
of whaling. First, he draws from Greek mythology, the Judeo-Christian Bible,
and Hindu mythology. He then discusses the Jonah story in particular (a story
that has been shadowing this entire novel from the start) through the eyes of
an old Sag-Harbor whaleman who is crusty and questions the Jonah story based on
personal experience.

Ishmael
then discusses pitchpoling by describing Stubb going through the motions
(throwing a long lance from a jerking boat to secure a running whale). He then
goes into a discursive explanation of how whales spout with some attempt at
scientific precision. But he cannot define exactly what the spout is, so he has
to put forward a hypothesis: the spout is nothing but mist, like the
"semi- visible steam" that proceeds from the head of ponderous beings
such as Plato, Pyrrho, the Devil, Jupiter, Dante, and himself! In the next
chapter, he celebrates a whale's most famous part: his tail. He likes its
potential power and lists its difierent uses.

When
the Pequod sails through the straits of Sunda (near Indonesia) without pulling
into any port, Ishmael takes the opportunity to discuss how isolated and self-
contained a whaleship is. While in the straits, they run into a great herd of
sperm whales swimming in a circle (the "Grand Armada"){ but as they
are chasing the whales, they are being chased by Malay pirates. They try to
"drugg" the whales so that they can kill them on their own time.

(There
are too many to try to kill at once.) They escape the pirates and go in boats
after the whales, somehow ending up inside their circle, a placid lake.

But
one whale, who had been pricked and was oundering in pain, panics the whole
herd. The boats in the middle are in danger but manage to get out of the center
of the chaos. They try to "waif" the whales{that is, mark them as the
Pequod's to be taken later. Ishmael then goes back to explaining whaling terms,
staring with "schools" of whales. The schoolmaster is the head of the
school, or the lord. The all-male schools are like a "mob of young collegians."
Backtracking to a reference in Chapter 87 about waifs, Ishmael explains how the
waif works as a symbol in the whale fishery. He goes on to talk about
historical whaling codes and the present one that a Fast- Fish belongs to the
party fast to it and a Loose-Fish is fair came for anybody who can soonest
catch it. A fish is fast when it is physically connected (by rope, etc.) to the
party after it or it bears a waif, says Ishmael. Lawyer- like, Ishmael cites
precedents and stories, to show how dificult it is to maintain rules. In Heads
or Tails, he mentions the strange problem with these rules in England because
the King and Queen claim the whale. Some whalemen in Dover (or some port near
there, says Ishmael) lost their whale to the Duke because he claimed the power
delegated him from the sovereign.

Returning
to the narrative, Ishmael says they come up on a French ship Bouton de Rose
(Rose-Button or Rose- Bud). This ship has two whales alongside: one
"blasted whale" (one that died unmolested on the sea) that is going
to have nothing useful in it and one whale that died from indigestion.

Stubb
asks a sailor about the White Whale? Never seen him, is the answer. Crafty
Stubb then asks why the man is trying to get oil out of these whales when
clearly there is none in either whale. The sailor on the Rose-Bud says that his
captain, on his first trip, will not believe the sailor's own statements that
the whales are worthless. Stubb goes aboard to tell the captain that the whales
are worthless, although he knows that the second whale might have ambergris, an
even more precious commodity than spermaceti. Stubb and the sailor make up a
little plan in which Stubb says ridiculous things in English and the sailor
says, in French, what he himself wants to say. The captain dumps the whales. As
soon as the Rose-Bud leaves, Stubb mines and finds the sweet- smelling
ambergris.

Ishmael,
in the next chapter, explains what ambergris is: though it looks like mottled
cheese and comes from the bowel of whales, ambergris is actually used for
perfumes. He uses dry legal language to describe ambergris and discuss its
history even though he acknowledges that poets have praised it.

Ishmael
then looks at where the idea that whales smell bad comes from. Some whaling
vessels might have skipped cleaning themselves a long time ago, but the current
bunch of South Sea Whalers always scrub themselves clean. The oil of the whale
works as a natural soap.

Chapters
93-101

Summary

These
are among the most important chapters in Moby- Dick. In The Castaway, Pip, who
usually watches the ship when the boats go out, becomes a replacement in
Stubb's boat. Having performed passably the first time out, Pip goes out a
second time and this time he jumps from the boat out of anxiety. When Pip gets
foul in the lines, and his boatmates have to let the whale go free to save him,
he makes them angry. Stubb tells him never to jump out of the boat again
because Stubb won't pick him up next time. Pip, however, does jump again, and
is left alone in the middle of the sea's "heartless immensity." Pip
goes mad.

A
Squeeze of the Hand, which describes the baling of the case (emptying the
sperm's head), is one of the funniest chapters in the novel. Because the
spermaceti quickly cools into lumps, the sailors have to squeeze it back into
liquid. Here, Ishmael goes overboard with his enthusiasm for the "sweet
and unctuous" sperm. He squeezes all morning long, getting sentimental about
the physical contact with the other sailors, whose hands he encounters in the
sperm. He goes on to describe the other parts of the whale, including the
euphemistically-named "cassock" (the whale's penis). This chapter is
also very funny, blasphemously likening the whale's organ to the dress of
clergymen because it has some pagan mysticism attached to it. It serves an
actual purpose on the ship: the mincer wears the black "pelt" of skin
from the penis to protect himself while he slices the horse-pieces of blubber
for the pots.

Ishmael
then tries to explain the try-works, heavy structures made of pots and furnaces
that boil the blubber and derive all the oil from it. He associates the
try-works with darkness and a sense of exotic evil: it has "an unspeakable,
wild, Hindoo odor about it, such as may lurk in the vicinity of funereal
pyres." Furthermore, the pagan harpooneers tend it. Ishmael also
associates it with the red fires of Hell that, in combination with the black
sea and the dark night, so disorient him that he loses sense of himself at the
tiller. Everything becomes "inverted," he says, and suddenly there is
"no compass before me to steer by."

In
a very short chapter, Ishmael describes in The Lamp how whalemen are always in
the light because their job is to collect oil from the seas. He then finishes
describing how whale's oil is processed: putting the oil in casks and cleaning
up the ship. Here he dismisses another myth about whaling: whalers are not
dirty. Sperm whale's oil is a fine cleaning agent. But Ishmael admits that
whalers are hardly clean for a day when the next whale is sighted and the cycle
begins again.

Ishmael
returns to talking about the characters again, showing the reactions of Ahab,
Starbuck, Stubb, Flask, the Manxman, Queequeg, Fedallah, and Pip to the golden
coin fixed on the mainmast. Ahab looks at the doubloon from Ecuador and sees
himself and the pains of man. Starbuck sees some Biblical significance about
how man can find little solace in times of trouble. Stubb, first saying he
wants to spend it, looks deeper at the doubloon because he saw his two
superiors gazing meaningfully at it. He can find little but some funny dancing
zodiac signs. Then Flask approaches, and says he sees "nothing here, round
thing made of gold and whoever raises a certain whale, this round thing belongs
to him. So what's all this staring been about?" Pip is the last to look at
the coin and says, prophetically, that here's the ship's "navel"{
something at the center of the ship, holding it together.

Then
the Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby, a whaling ship from London with a jolly
captain and crew. The first thing Ahab asks, of course, is if they have seen
Moby Dick. The captain, named Boomer, has, and is missing an arm because of it.
The story is pretty gory, but Boomer does not dwell too much on the horrible
details, choosing instead to talk about the hot rum toddies he drank during his
recovery. The ship encountered the white whale again but did not want to try to
fasten to it. Although the people on board the Enderby think he is crazy, Ahab
insists on knowing which way the whale went and returns to his ship to pursue
it.

In
the next chapter, Ishmael backtracks, to explain why the name Enderby is
significant: this man fitted the first ever English sperm whaling ship.

Ishmael
then exuberantly explains the history behind Enderby's before telling the story
of the particular whaler Samuel Enderby. The good food aboard the Enderby earns
the ship the title "Decanter."

Chapter
102-114

Summary

Ishmael
now tries another tactic for interpreting the whale. In the chapter called A
Bower in the Arsacides, he discusses how he learned to measure a whale's bones.
When he was visiting his friend Tranquo, king of Tranque, he lived in a culture
in which the whale skeleton was sacred. After telling how he learned to
measure, he goes on to tell the results of the measurements. He begins with the
skull, the biggest part, then the ribs, and the spine. But these bones, he
cautions, give only a partial picture of the whale since so much esh is wrapped
around them. A person cannot still find good representation of a whale in its
entirety.

And
Ishmael continues to "manhandle" the whale, self- consciously saying
that he does the best he knows how. So he decides to look at the Fossil Whale
from an "archaeological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of
view." He can't be too grandiloquent with his exaggerated words and
diction because the whale itself is so grand. He ashes credentials again, this
time as a geologist and then discusses his finds. But, again, he is
unsatisfied: "the skeleton of the whale furnishes but little clue to the
shape of his fully invested body." But this chapter does give a sense of
the whale's age and his pedigree.

Ishmael
finally gives up, in awe, deconstructing the whale- -now he wants to know if
such a fabulous monster will remain on the earth. Ishmael says that though they
may not travel in herds anymore, though they may have changed haunting grounds,
they remain. Why? Because they have established a new home base at the poles,
where man cannot penetrate; because they've been hunted throughout history and
still remain; because the whale population is not in danger for survival since
many generations of whales are alive at the same time.

Ahab
asks the carpenter to make him a new leg because the one he uses is not
trustworthy. After hitting it heavily on the boat's wooden oor when he returned
from the Enderby, he does not think it will keep holding. Indeed, just before
the Pequod sailed, Ahab had been found lying on the ground with the whalebone
leg gouging out his thigh. So the carpenter, the do-it-all man on the ship, has
to make Ahab a new prosthetic leg. They discuss the feeling of a ghost leg.
When Ahab leaves, the carpenter thinks he is a little queer.

A
sailor then informs Ahab, in front of Starbuck, that the oil casks are leaking.
The sailor suggests that they stop to fix them, but Ahab refuses to stop,
saying that he doesn't care about the owners or profft. Starbuck objects and
Ahab points a musket at him. Says Starbuck, "I ask thee not to beware of
Starbuck; thou wouldst but laugh; but let Ahab beware of Ahab; beware of
thyself, old man." In cleaning out the stowed oil casks, Queequeg falls
sick. Thinking he is going to die, Queequeg orders a coffn made. He lies in it
and closes the cover, as Pip dances around the coffn. Soon, Queequeg feels well
again and gets out. Ishmael attributes this to his "savage" nature.

In
The Pacific, Ishmael gets caught up in the meditative, serene Pacific Ocean. At
the end of the chapter, he comes back to Ahab, saying that no such calming
thoughts entered the brain of the captain. Ishmael then pans over to the
blacksmith whose life on land disintegrated. With characteristic panache,
Ishmael explains that the sea beckons to broken-hearted men who long for death
but cannot commit suicide. The Forge dramatizes an exchange between the
blacksmith and Ahab in which the captain asks the blacksmith to make a special
harpoon to kill the white whale. Although Ahab gives the blacksmith directions,
he takes over the crafting of the harpoon himself, hammering the steel on the
anvil and tempering it with the blood of the three harpooneers (instead of
water). The scene ends with Pip's laughter.

In
The Gilder, Ishmael considers how the dreaminess of the sea masks a ferocity.
He speaks of the sea as "gilt" because it looks golden in the sun-set
and is falsely calm. The sea even makes Starbuck rhapsodize, making an
apostrophe (direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified
abstraction, especially as a digression in the course of a speech or
composition) to the sea; Stubb answers him by surprise and, as usual, makes
light of the situation.

Chapters
115-125

Summary

These
chapters show how badly off the Pequod really is. The somber Pequod, still on
the lookout for Moby Dick, runs into the Bachelor, a festive Nantucket whaler
on its way home with a full cargo. The captain of the Bachelor, saying that he
has only heard stories of the white whale and doesn't believe them, invites Ahab
and the crew to join his party. Ahab declines. The next day, the Pequod kills
several whales and the way that a dying whale turns towards the sun spurs Ahab
to speak out to it in wondrous tones. While keeping a night vigil over a whale
that was too far away to take back to the ship immediately, Ahab hears from
Fedallah the prophecy of his death. Before Ahab can die, he must see two
hearses, one "not made by mortal hands" and one made of wood from
America; and only hemp can kill the captain. Back on the ship, Ahab holds up a
quadrant, an instrument that gauges the position of the sun, to determine the
ship's latitude. Ahab decides that it does not give him the orienteering
information he wants and tramples it underfoot. He orders the ship to change
direction.

The
next day, the Pequod is caught in a typhoon. The weird weather makes white ames
appear at the top of the three masts and Ahab refuses to let the crew put up
lightning rods to draw away the danger. While Ahab marvels at the ship's three
masts lit up like three spermaceti candles, hailing them as good omens and
signs of his own power, Starbuck sees them as a warning against continuing the
journey. When Starbuck sees Ahab's harpoon also ickering with fire, he says
that this is a sign that God is against Ahab. Ahab, however, grasps the
harpoon, and says, in front of a frightened crew, there is nothing to fear in
the enterprise that binds them all together. He blows out the ame to "blow
out the last fear. "In the next chapter, Starbuck questions Ahab's judgment
again{this time saying that they should pull down the main-top-sail yard. Ahab
says that they should just lash it tighter, complaining that his first mate
must think him incompetent. On the bulwarks of the forecastle, Stubb and Flask
are having their own conversation about the storm and Ahab's behavior. Stubb
basically dominates the conversation and says that this journey is no more
dangerous than any other is even though it seems as if Ahab is putting them in
extreme danger. Suspended above them all on the main-top-sail yard, Tashtego
says to himself that sailors don't care that much about the storm, just rum.
When the storm finally dies down, Starbuck goes below to report to Ahab. On the
way to Ahab's cabin, he sees a row of muskets, including the very one that Ahab
had leveled at him earlier. Angry about Ahab's reckless and selfish behavior,
he talks to himself about whether he ought to kill his captain. He decides he
cannot kill Ahab in his sleep and goes up.

When
Ahab is on deck the next day, he realizes that the storm has thrown off the
compasses. Ahab then pronounces himself "lord over the level loadstone
yet" and makes his own needle. Here Ishmael comments, "In this fiery
eyes of scorn and triumph, you then saw Ahab in all his fatal pride." With
all the other orienteering devices out of order, Ahab decides to pull out the
seldom-used log and line. Because of heat and moisture, the line breaks and
Ahab realizes that he now has none of his original orienteering devices. He
calls for Pip to help him and Pip answers with nonsense. Ahab, touched by Pip's
crazy speeches, says that his cabin will now be Pip's because they boy
"touchest [his] inmost center."

Chapters
126-132

Sailors
are very superstitious. As the Pequod approaches the Equatorial fishing ground,
the sailors think that they hear ghosts wailing. The Manxman (man from the Isle
of Man) says that these are the voices of the newly drowned men in the sea.
Ahab says nonsense. When the Pequod's life-buoy falls overboard and sinks, the
sailors think it is a fulfillment of evil that was foretold. The offcers decide
to replace the life-buoy with Queequeg's coffn.

Though
the carpenter grumbles about having to transform the object, Ahab, who is aware
of the irony of the substitution, nevertheless calls the carpenter
"unprincipled as the gods" for going through with the substitution.

The
Pequod encounters the ship Rachel while it is looking for Moby Dick in these
waters. Captain Gardiner of the , after afirming that he has indeed seen Moby
Dick, climbs aboard Ahab's ship and begs Ahab to help him find his son, whose
whaleboat was lost in the chase after the white whale. Ahab refuses. Now that
Ahab knows that the white whale is near, he spends a lot of time walking the
decks. As Ahab goes up one time, Pip wants to follow him. Ahab tells him to
stay in the captain's cabin, lest Pip's insanity start to cure his own just
when he's getting close to the whale and needs to be a little crazy.

And
so Ahab, shadowed everywhere by Fedallah, remains on deck, ever watchful. This
continuous watch sharpens Ahab's obsession and he decides that he must be the
first to sight the whale. He asks Starbuck to help him get up the main-mast
head and watch his rope. When he is there, a black hawk steals his hat; Ishmael
this considers a bad omen. The Pequod then runs into the miserably misnamed
ship Delight. The Delight has indeed encountered Moby Dick, but the result was
a gutted whaleboat and dead men. As the Pequod goes by, the Delight drops a
corpse in the water and sprinkles the Pequod's hull with a "ghostly
baptism."

In
the chapter called The Symphony, disparage parts come together for a crescendo.
The pressure finally gets to Ahab and he seems human here, dropping a tear into
the sea. He and Starbuck have a bonding moment as Ahab sadly talks about his
continual, tiring whaling. He calls himself a fool and thinks himself pathetic.
Starbuck suggests giving up the chase, but Ahab wonders if he can stop because
he feels pushed on by Fate. But as Ahab is asking these grand questions, Starbuck
steals away. When Ahab goes to the other side of the deck to gaze into the
water, Fedallah, too, is looking over the rail.

Chapters
133-Epilogue

Summary

Ahab
can sense by smell that Moby Dick is near. Climbing up to the main royal-mast
head, Ahab spots Moby Dick and earns himself the doubloon. All the boats set
off in chase of the whale. When Moby Dick finally surfaces, he stoves Ahab's
boat. The whale is swimming too fast away from them and they all return to the
ship.

Saying
that persistent pursuit of one whale has historically happened before, Ishmael
comments that Ahab still desperately wants to chase Moby Dick though he has
lost one boat. They do sight Moby Dick again and the crewmen, growing
increasingly in awe of Ahab and caught up in the thrill of the chase, lower
three boats. Starbuck stays to mind the Pequod. Ahab tries to attack Moby Dick
head on this time, but again, Moby Dick is triumphant.

He
stoves Ahab's ship and breaks his false leg. When they return to the Pequod,
Ahab finds out that Fedallah is gone, dragged down by Ahab's own line. Starbuck
tells him to stop, but Ahab, convinced that he is only the "Fate's
lieutenant," says he must keep pursuing the whale.

.
Still on the look out, the crew spots the white whale for a third time but sees
nothing until Ahab realizes, "Aye, he's chasing me now; not I, him{ that's
bad." They turn the ship around completely and Ahab mounts the masthead himself.
He sights the spout and lowers again. As he gets into his boat and leaves
Starbuck in charge, the two men exchange a poignant moment in which Ahab asks
to shake hands with his first made and the first mate tries to tell him not to
go. Dangerously, sharks bite at the oars as the boats pull away.

Starbuck,
in a monologue, laments Ahab's sure doom. On the water, Ahab sees Moby Dick
breach. Seeing Fedallah strapped to the whale by turns of rope, Ahab realizes
that this is the first hearse that the Parsee had forecasted. The whale goes
down again and Ahab rows close to the ship. He tells Tashtego to find another
ag and nail it to the main masthead. The boats soon see the white whale again
and go after him. But Moby Dick only turns around, and heads for the Pequod at
full speed. He smashes the ship.

It
goes down without its captain. The ship, Ahab realizes, is the second hearse.
Impassioned, Ahab is now determined to strike at Moby Dick with all of his
power: "Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale;
to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's
sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffns and all hearses to one
common pool and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while
still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the
spear!" After darting the whale, Ahab is caught around the neck by the
ying line. He is dragged under the sea. Tashtego, meanwhile, is still trying to
nail the ag to the ship's spar as it goes down. He catches a sky-hawk in
mid-hammer and the screaming bird, folded in the ag, goes down with everything
else.

In
the Epilogue, Ishmael wraps up the story, saying that he is the only one who
survives the wreck. All the boats and ship were ruined. Ishmael survives only
because Queequeg's coffn bobs up and becomes his life buoy. A day after the wreck,
the Rachel, still cruising for her first lost son, saves Ishmael.

Introduction:
The first forty-four pages written by the author tell about his life working at
the Custom House in Salem Massachusetts. During his time of employment there,
he discovers some records in the attic and begins to piece together the story
of Hester Prynne, an adulterous man in Puritan Salem. The Scarlet Letter is
his account of the story with as many facts as he, the author, was able to
gather from the documents he found. Chapter 1: Hawthorn’s first
chapter is short, detailing the set up of colonial Salem. He talks of the town
and how essential prisons and cemeteries are in the organization. Next to the
steps of the Salem prison is a rosebush that has survived centuries and
Hawthorn says this bush gives comfort with it’s beauty to the people who enter
and leave the establishment.

Chapter 2: A
town meeting is taking place and the people of the town, mainly the women, are
gathered for the release of the adulteress, Hester Prynne. She steps out of
the prison with the town beadle leading her with his hand on her shoulder.
Hawthorn describes her as beautiful with a very proud stature that does not
cower to the crowd of disdain that surrounds her. On her chest she bears the
scarlet letter ‘A’ that is surrounded by shining gold thread upon a gown that
scandalizes the women of the town.

Clutched close to her breast is the child
that was produced by her adultery and the apparent reason she was not more
harshly punished for her crime. She stood there under public scrutiny, not
with a look of shame but almost bewilderment that her life had panned out as it
had.

Chapter 3:
Mistress Prynne is placed upon the pillory for three hours so all can see her
shame. As she is standing there with her babe, she notices a new man in town
along with an Indian. From the moment she sees him, she cannot take her eyes
from him. An angry look quickly flashes across the man’s face at the sight of
her and he inquires to the town person next to him why the woman is made to
stand upon the pillory. Both the man and the readers are informed that
Mistress Prynne was married to a man who has not yet returned from the
Netherlands where they sailed from to New England.

Because she was so long away from her
husband, it is obvious that he was not the father of her child. The man asked
of her sentence, and of the man who did father the child and the town’s person
told him that the father is not known. The Governor of the town who is
standing on a higher platform then appeals to the Reverend Dimmesdale to
extract the name of father from Mistress Prynne. After an emotional plea to
Mistress Prynne, she still refuses to state the name of the father of her
child, and states that her child has only a heavenly father.

Chapter 4:
When Mistress Prynne was returned to the prison, she was in such mental
disarray that the jailer, Master Brackett, decided to call in the physician.
Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s real husband, introduces himself as the physician
for Mistress Prynne and as soon as he enters the room, she goes perfectly
still. Mr. Chillingsworth was the same man who she saw when she was on the
pillory. He began to examine the baby and Hester expresses her concern that he
will hurt the child as revenge on her.

They talk about their failed marriage, and
how there was never love between them, and Roger tells her not to reveal to
anyone who he really was. After giving her a draught to calm her, he asks her
who the father of the child was. Again, as she did when asked by the Reverend,
she refuses to give the name of the father. At her refusal, he tells her that
he will find out who the man is and that she not breathe a word of his identity
to anyone.

Chapter 5:
Hester was released from prison and free to go wherever she wished. Instead of
fleeing the town she moved to a little cottage outside of it, and supported
herself with her needlework. She sewed for many different people of the town
but kept herself in plain clothing, save the letter upon her bosom. She took
all of the passion of her life and used it to ply her needle. Much of her work
she donated to the poor as penance for her guilt. Although they all coveted
her services, she was still an outcast looked upon with malice and her sin
burned deep in her soul.

Chapter 6:
Hester named her child Pearl because she was her treasure in life. Pearl was
beautiful and intelligent, and had an air of a nymph about her. Even as a
baby, the child was fascinated by the scarlet letter Hester wore upon her
breast. This was a constant reminder for Hester of her sin. Pearl was a happy
laughing child who had a fiery passion and temper that made Hester and others
wonder if she was a demon with her black eyes. Everywhere Hester went Pearl
went also. They had only each other. Hester attempted to raise her daughter
with Puritan values but could not discipline her and Pearl held the strings on
whether or not she did what she was told. Chapter 7: Hester and Pearl
went to the Governor Bellingham’s house to deliver a pair of gloves she had
embroidered for him. More than the delivery, Hester was there to plead to be
able to keep Pearl. The people of the town thought that because of her sin,
Hester was unfit to raise her child. When she arrived to the house, the
governor was with other gentleman in the garden and they waited for a chance to
speak with him. As they were waiting, Pearl was examining a shining suit of
armor and saw Hester in it. She was delighted by the sight, and Hester’s image
was lost behind the large shiny red letter that was magnified by the polished
armor.

Chapter 8:
The Governor, the pastor John Wilson, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger
Chillingworth exited the garden to find their path blocked by the nymph Pearl.
Struck by the beauty of the scarlet clad child they ask her to whom she
belongs. She answers that she is Pearl, and her mother’s child. As they enter
the hall, they see Mistress Prynne and are happy that she has come so they can
discuss what to do with Pearl. Testing to see whether the child has been
properly instructed so far, the dotting John Winston asks young Pearl who made
her. Pearl, though she knew the correct answer was the Heavenly Father
answered that she had been plucked by her mother from the rose bush by the
prison door.

The gentlemen were appalled by the child’s
answer and decided that Hester should not raise her further. Hester was angry
with this and pleaded Reverend Dimmesdale who knew she was capable of guiding
the child spiritually to let her keep Pearl. She argued that God gave her
Pearl, and that they could not take away the only joy that God gave her. After
discussing it further among themselves, with the Reverend giving an impassioned
plea for Hester, they decided to let her keep Pearl. Hester was thankful, and
she and Pearl left for home. Mr. Chillingworth offered to figure out the
identity of the father of the child, but his offer was refused. As she leaves,
Hester realizes that she would have sold her soul to the devil if it meant she
could keep her child.

Chapter 9:
Since his first appearance in town, the people looked on Roger Chillingworth as
a blessing. They were thankful that such a learned physician was given to
them. As time went on, Mr. Chillingworth and the Reverend Dimmesdale became
very close. Though he was young, the Reverend was growing sicker and sicker by
the day and the people of the town implored him to let the physician examine
him. He refused but continued to become closer and closer to the old man.
After a while they even began living together in the home of a respected matron
of the town. As time passed, the people began to look at Mr. Chillingworth
differently however. Instead of seeing a man sent from God to help them, they
saw in his old disfigured form, a servant of Satan that was sent to haunt the
Reverend.

Chapter 10:
Mr. Chillingworth watched the Reverend searching him for the secret sin of his
soul. Searching for Hester’s lover became the secret purpose of his life and
it clouded his head and heart. Slowly he was trying to get the Reverend to
confess to the deed, and one afternoon began a discussion with him about
unconfessed sin and how it eats away at the soul. While they are talking, they
see Hester and Pearl in the cemetery. They look up at the men in the window
and they wonder if the mischevious nymph like, Pearl, is true evil. After the
woman and the child leave the cemetery, the men continue with their
conversation.

Mr. Chillingworth accuses the Reverend that
he cannot cure him until he knows the pain upon his soul because that sin is
part of his bodily ailment. In a moment of passion, the Reverend blows up at
him telling him that he will reveal nothing to the earthly man and leaves the
room. This display of passion makes Mr. Chillingworth exceptionally pleased
because it brings him closer to finding out that his suspicions of Hester and
the Reverend are true.

Chapter 11: As
the days went by the Reverend Dimmesdale continued to be haunted more and more
by the sin upon his soul. He would look upon his companion the physician with
disgust and feel as if the black part of his heart was spilling over into the
rest of his life. The people of the town began to worship him more, saying he
was a wonderful and saintly young preacher. As they looked up to him with
greater fervor, he began to hate himself more. Many a time he stood on his
pulpit aching to tell them of his sin, release it from his heart. However, all
he could manage to say was that he was a terrible sinner, which only inspired
his congregation more because they saw him as virtually flawless. He fasted,
prayed, and kept vigils in order to purge himself, but the sin upon his soul
haunted him without end.

Chapter 12: It
was midnight and Reverend Dimmesdale was so tortured by his sin that he took
himself out and stood upon the scaffold that Hester had stood. He planned to
stay there all night suffering from his own shame. At one point he cried out
hoping in his mind to wake the whole town so they could see him standing there,
so his sin could finally be revealed and his mind eased. However, no one in
the town was awakened by his cry. At one point from his perch, he saw the
Pastor John Winston walking towards him, but the man was wrapped up tightly in
his cloak and did not notice the Reverend on the scaffold.

His mind wandered to what he would look like
in the morning when his body was frozen with cold, and at the image of himself
in his mind, he laughed. His laugh was returned by a sprightly laugh in the
darkness that was none other than Pearl’s. He cried out to her in the night,
and to Hester. They appeared having been out measuring a robe for a man who
had died that evening. At the Reverend’s request, they came to stand upon the
scaffold with him and they joined hands in their sin. Pearl asked the Reverend
repeatedly if he would come stand with them on the scaffold the next day at
noon, but the Dimmesdale refused. Out of the darkness, Mr. Chillingworth
appeared, and the Reverend spoke his fear and hatred of the man. He asked who
he really was, and because of her oath, Hester kept her silence. Pearl
whispered gibberish to him in revenge for him not standing with them the next
day on the scaffold. The Reverend looked up into the sky and saw a meteor
trail that looked like a large red ‘A’ leering at him. Mr. Chillingworth told
him to come home and he left the scaffold with the evilly happy physician.

Chapter 13:
Seven years had passed since little Pearl’s birth. The letter on Hester’s chest
to the village people had become a symbol of her good deeds. It set her apart
from the general population, but many looked on her as a sister of charity.
When someone was in need she was always the one by his or her side. Many
people in town said the A stood for able. She had changed. She was an empty
form, void of the passion and love that people were able to see in her before.

Her luxurious hair was always hidden from
the sight of the people. After the minister’s vigil, Hester found a new cause
for sacrifice, a new purpose. She decided to talk to the old physician, her
former husband, and try to save his victim from further mental torture. After
making her decision, she came upon him as he was walking the peninsula.

Chapter 14:
Hester instructed Pearl to go run and play and she went to a pool and saw
herself there. Hester accosted Mr. Chillingworth and he began telling her of
all the good things the people in the town had said about her. The leaders in
the town at the last council meeting had even thought about admitting Hester to
take the letter off her bosom. Hester told him that if the Lord meant her to
take it off her chest that it would have fallen off long ago. While they began
talking, Hester took a good look at him. In the past seven years he had aged well,
but there was a strikingly different look about him. He wore a guarded look of
an eager angry man who was out for revenge.

They began talking about the minister and
Mr. Chillingworth reveals that had it not been for his care, the minister would
have died long ago. Hester asks if he has not had enough revenge since he was
able to torture the minister every day by burying into his heart. He answers
no, that it will never be enough. Hester tells him that she plans on revealing
his secret to the minister and he tells her that neither of them are sinful and
evil, they just must lead the lives that they were given because of her sin.
They say farewell, and Hester leaves him to gathering herbs.

Chapter 15:
Hester watches him for a while from a distance disgusted at the evil she sees
in him. She turns to find little Pearl who was playing with all the different
things in nature. When Pearl goes back to her mother, Hester sees that the
child has made a letter A out of seaweed and placed it on her chest. Hester
asks the child if she knows what the letter her mother wears means. Pearl
answers that it is the same reason the minister keeps his hand over his chest.

That is all she knows however, and she asks
earnestly why she wears the scarlet letter, and why the minister places his
hand over his heart. Ever since she was little, Pearl had a certain
fascination with the letter that tortured her mother even more. Hester decided
it was better to not unburden her sin upon her child and told her daughter that
it meant nothing. After that day however, Pearl would ask her mother two or
three times a day what the scarlet letter meant.

Chapter 16: :
Hester learned that the Minister had gone into the woods to visit a friend who
lived among the Indians. She learned when he was expected to return, and when
the day came, she and Pearl went into the forest so she could catch him on his
return and speak with him in private. As they enter the forest, Pearl says
that she can stand in the sunlight, but the sunlight runs away from Hester. In
response, Hester reaches out to touch the stream of light that flocks around
the little elf-child, and it vanishes when her hand comes near. Pearl then
asks her mother for a story about the black man who inhabits the forest, which
she over heard a woman the previous evening talking about. Pearl said that
people went into the forest and signed the Black man’s book with their blood
and that she heard the scarlet letter was the black man’s mark on her mother.
They traveled into the deep into the forest and stopped next to a little brook
that Pearl began playing around. After a while, they saw the Reverend Dimmesdale
come walking slowly down the path, and Hester tells Pearl to run and play.

Chapter 17:
Hester calls out to the Minister and he instantly straightens up and looks
towards her. He finds out it is she and they inquire on how their lives have
been in the last seven years. They sit down together on a log, and ask each
other if they have found peace. The minister expresses his sadness and how he
feels like a hypocrite teaching others to be holy, when he himself has a
terrible hidden sin. Hester tries to help him by talking with him and caring
for him. He thanks her for her friendship. She then tells him of Roger Chillingsworth,
how he is her husband, and out for revenge. Dimmesdale is horrified but knew
that something was wrong with Roger Chillingworth. Hester could not take the
frown that descended upon his face, and asked him if he forgave her. He has,
and she asks if he remembers what they had. She hints that they once had a
great passion and affection for each other. Hester talks of them leaving
together. Arthur says he has not the strength to travel that far, but with
Hester helping him, they thought they could do it.

Chapter 18:
Together they decide to leave the New World together and not torture themselves
further with their sin so that only God will judge them. To them, they are
damned already. Hester unhooks her scarlet letter and tosses it by the
bubbling brook. They make plans together and say that they will leave for
England on the ship that is in the harbor. Talking of their love and their
plans, they call back Pearl, for once happy and with lifted spirits. Pearl is
off in the forest playing and interacting with the animals. When they call her
back, Pearl comes slowly when she sees them sitting together.

Chapter 19: They sat there looking
at Pearl as she approached. She had adorned herself with wild flowers and
looked like a fairy child. They rejoiced in their child as she came towards
him, and Arthur was exceptionally afraid and anxious for the interview. Pearl
stopped at the brook and stared at them. The child pointed at her mother with
a frown. Hester called out to her harshly to come and Pearl began screaming
and throwing a tantrum. Hester realized that the child was upset that her
scarlet letter was not affixed to her mother’s breast. She walked over to
where it lay on the ground and showed it to the child. She pinned it back into
place, and Pearl was pacified and happy again. They approached the minister
and the three of them held hands, and they tried to explain to her that they
were all going to be a happy family. The minister kissed Pearl’s forehead and
she ran quickly to the brook to try to wash it away.

Chapter 20:
Arthur Dimmesdale walked home happily. For the first time in seven years,
there was a bounce in his step and a light in his hurting heart. On his way, he saw some of his parishioners and he had
thoughts of corruption on his mind. He thought about the reaction he would get
if he whispered corrupting things in their ears. There are three different
people he runs into in which he feels this. He resists the temptation to do
this, and wonders why he is having these thoughts. He wonders if he signed the
black man’s book in the forest with his blood. He runs into a woman known as
the town witch, and she tells him the next time he wants to go into the forest
she would go with him. When he arrives home, Mr. Chillingworth comes into his
room, and the Reverend refuses to take anymore of his medicine. He sits at his
desk and reworks the sermon he had planned for the following celebration.

Chapter 21: A
public holiday because of the election was planned and everyone from that and
the neighboring towns attended in their best clothing. Hester and little Pearl
attended but stayed slightly apart from the crowd. Though everyone was packed
close to see the parade, there was an empty circle around Hester because of her
scarlet letter. She had gone previously to make plans with the captain of the
ship that they were going to take to England, and she saw the captain of that
vessel talking to Roger Chillingworth. The captain then came over to her and
informed her that the physician would be attending the voyage with them. She
looked towards him, and he smiled at her evilly.

Chapter 22:
The parade began and Pearl saw the minister when he reached the front. She
asked if that was the same minister who kissed her in the woods, and Hester
told her to not talk about it in the marketplace. Mistress Hibbins approached
her and began talking to Hester about the minister. Hester denied any
involvement with him, and they began watching as he preached to the people.
Pearl left her mother and wandered around. The captain of the ship told Pearl
to give her mother a message for him. She told him that her father was the
Prince of Air. She threatened him and ran to her mother. Hester’s mind
wandered and thought about how she would soon be free of he scarlet letter and
the pain associated with it.

Chapter 23: The minister ended his
incredible speech and it was one of the best of his life. The people were inspired
and as the parade turned therefor, everyone would exit. The minister looked
exceptionally sick and called to Hester and Pearl to come to him. Roger
Chillingworth ran towards and tried to get Hester back from the minister. He
is dying and with his last breaths he shouts his sin to the audience around and
blesses Hester and Pearl. He tells the people to take another better look at
Hester and at himself so they see the truth in them. He ripped off the
ministerial band from his chest, and the people stood shocked. The people are
struck with awe and sympathy. The doctor came over the minister, awestruck
because he will lose him and his revenge. Dimmesdale asks Pearl for a kiss and
she finally places one on his lips. Hester kneels over him and asks him if
they will not see each other again, and spend eternity together. The reverend
tells her that their sin was too large, and that is all she should be
concerned. He shouted farewell to the audience and breathed his last breath.

Chapter 24: People swore after that day that when they saw the
minister rip off the band on his breast that a scarlet ‘A’ resided there. Many
thought that he made the revelation in the dying hour so everyone would know
that one who appeared so pure, was as much a sinner as the rest of them. Roger
Chillingworth died within the year and bequeathed large amounts of property
both in New England and in England to Pearl. This made Pearl the richest
heiress in the New World. Soon after his death, Hester Prynne and her little
Pearl disappeared. Years later Hester came back alone to live with her sin in
her cottage. Pearl was thought to be happily married elsewhere and mindful of
her mother. After her return, many people of the town went to Hester for
advice and help when they were in need. After many years she died, and was
placed next to the saintly minister. They shared a tombstone and they would be
together forever.

Character
Profiles

Hester Prynne: A
beautiful puritan woman full of strong passions, Hester Prynne is the main
character in the story. Employed as the village seamstress, she is strong and
caring, helping anyone she can when he or she are in need. With a penitent
heart, Hester travels through the story becoming only a shadow of her former
passionate loving self. Other than the scarlet letter, she was a very moral
woman whose only joy in life was her daughter Pearl. Roger Chillingsworth:
The missing husband of Hester Prynne. He shows up the day that Hester is put
on public display and does not show himself as her husband. A scholar and a
man of medicine, his soul purpose in his life becomes revenge against the man
who helped his wife sin. By the end of the story, he is shown to be an evil
character.

Pearl:
Looked on as the devil’s child, Pearl is the only one in the story that is
purely innocent. She is passionate, intelligent, and energetic. Pearl is in
touch with nature and with her mother’s feelings. Ever since she was born,
Pearl had a fascination with the scarlet letter that is a constant reminder for
Hester of her sin.

Arthur Dimmesdale: The minister of the town that the people adore, Arthur was the secret
lover of Hester Prynne. He was a sickly man who took his sin very seriously.
He spent the seven years since his indiscretion with Mistress Prynne trying to
repent. He wore down his body with his penitence and his sin ate away his
soul. In the end, he frees himself from his guilt by admitting to everyone his
sin.

Metaphor Analysis

The Rose Bush: A
rose bush that grew outside the prison was a symbol of survival, that there is
life after the prison where Hester spent he beginning of the story.

The Scarlet Letter ‘A’: The letter
that Hester was forced to wear upon her bosom, the scarlet letter was not only
a symbol of her adulterous sin, but of the women herself. The letter masks her
beauty and passion as the story goes until it is what she is known.

The Black Man in the Woods: the peoples symbol for the devil. The woods in those times were a very
scary place, and they thought that people that went into it came out evil and
corrupted.

Theme
Analysis

The Scarlet Letter is a story that illustrates
intricate pieces of the Puritan lifestyle. Centered first on a sin committed
by Hester Prynne and her secret lover before the story ever begins, the novel
details how sin affects the lives of the people involved. For Hester, the sin
forces her into isolation from society and even from herself. Her qualities
that Hawthorne describes at the opening of the book, i.e. her beauty, womanly
qualities, and passion are, after a time, eclipsed by the ‘A’ she is forced to
wear. An example of this is her hair. Long hair is something in this time
period that is a symbol of a woman. At the beginning of the story, Hawthorne
tells of Hester’s long flowing hair. After she wears the scarlet letter for a
time, he paints a picture of her with her hair out of site under a cap, and all
the wanton womanliness gone from her.

Yet, even with her true eclipsed behind the
letter, of the three main characters affected, Hester has the easiest time
because her sin is out in the open. More than a tale of sin, the Scarlet
Letter is also an intense love story that shows itself in the forest scene
between Hester and the minister Arthur Dimmesdale. With plans to run away with
each, Arthur and Hester show that their love has surpassed distance and time
away from each other. This love also explains why Hester would not reveal the
identity of her fellow sinner when asked on the scaffolding. Roger
Chillingworth is the most affected by the sin, though he was not around when
the sin took place. Demented by his thoughts of revenge and hate, Hawthorne
shows Mr. Chillingworth to be a devil or as a man with an evil nature. He
himself commits one of the seven deadly sins with his wrath.

By the end of the tale that surpasses seven
years, Hester is respected and revered by the community as a doer of good
works, and the minister is worshipped for his service in the church. Only Mr.
Chillingworth is looked upon badly by the townspeople although no one knows
why. Through it all, Hawthorne illustrates that even sin can produce purity, and
that purity came in the form of the sprightly Pearl. Though she is isolated
with her mother, Pearl finds her company and joy in the nature that surrounds
her. She alone knows that her mother must keep the scarlet letter on her at
all times, and that to take it off is wrong.

Through the book the child is also
constantly asking the minister to confess his sin to the people of the town
inherently knowing that it will ease his pain. Hawthorne’s metaphor of the
rose growing next to the prison is a good metaphor for Pearl’s life that began
in that very place. The reader sees this connection when Pearl tells the minister
that her mother plucked her from the rose bush outside of the prison. Finally,
for all the characters, Hawthorne’s novel illustrates how one sin can escalate
to encompass one’s self so that the true humans behind the sin are lost. This
is what makes Hawthorne’s novel not only a story of love vs. hate, sin vs.
purity, good vs. evil, but all of these combined to make a strikingly historical
tragedy as well.

Top Ten Quotes

1) «It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize
some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the
darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.» 2) « ‘People say,’ said
another, ‘that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very
grievously to his heart that such a scandal has come upon his congregation.’»
3) « ‘If thou feelest to be for thy soul’s peace, and that they earthly
punishment will there by be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to
speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer.’» 4) «But she
named the infant ‘Pearl,’ as being of great price- purchased with all she had-
her mother’s only pleasure.» 5) «After putting her fingers in her mouth, with
many ungrateful refusals to answer Mr. Wilson’s question, the child finally
announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother
off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door» 6) « ‘He hath done a
wild thing ere now, this pious Mr. Dimmesdale, in the hot passion of his
heart!’» 7) «Such helpfulness was found in her- so much power to do and power
to sympathize- that many people refused to interpret the scarlet ‘A’ by it’s
original signification. They said that it meant ‘Able’; so strong was Hester
Prynne, with a women’s strength.» 8) «‘That old man!- the physician!- the one
whom they call Roger Chillingworth!-he was my husband!’» 9) «Pacify her, if
thou lovest me!» 10) « ‘Hester Prynne’ cried he, with a piercing earnestness
‘in the name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me grace, at this
last moment, to do what- for my own heavy sin and miserable agony- I withheld
myself from doing seven years ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength
about me!»

Slaughterhouse
Five

Chapter
One. Summary:

The
narrator assures us that the book we are about to read is true, more or less.
The parts dealing with World War II are most faithful to actual events.
Twenty-three years have passed since the end of the war, and for much of that
time the narrator has been trying to write about the bombing of Dresden. He was
never able to bring make the project work. When he thinks about Dresden's place
in his memory, he always recalls two things: an obscene limerick about a man whose
penis has let him down, and "My Name is Yon Yonson," a song which has
no ending.

Late
some nights, the narrator gets drunk and begins to track down old friends with
the telephone. Some years ago he tracked down Bernard O'Hare, an old war buddy
of his, using Bell Atlantic phone operators. When he tracked his old friend
down, he asked if Bernard would help him remember things about the war. Bernard
seemed unenthusiastic. When the narrator suggests the execution of Edgar Derby,
an American who stole a teapot from the ruins, as the climax of the novel,
Bernard still seems unenthusiastic.

The
best outline the narrator ever made for his Dresden book was on a roll of
toilet paper, using crayon. Colors represented different people, and the lines
crisscrossed when people met, and ended when they died. The outline ended with
the exchange of prisoners who had been liberated by Americans and Russians.

After
the war, the narrator went home, married, and had kids, all of whom are grown
now. He studied anthropology at the University of Chicago, and in anthropology
he learned that "there was absolutely no difference between anybody,"
and that "nobody was ridiculous or bad or disgusting." He's worked
various jobs, and tried to keep up work on his Dresden novel all this time.

He
actually did go to see Bernard O'Hare just a few weeks after finding him over
the telephone. He brought his young daughters, who were sent upstairs to play
with O'Hare's kids. The men could not think of any particularly good memories
or stories, and the narrator noticed that Mary, Bernard's wife (to whom Slaughterhouse
Five is dedicated), seemed very angry about something. Finally, she
confronted him: the narrator and Bernard were just babies when they fought.
Mary was angry because if the narrator wrote a book, he would make himself and
Bernard tough men, glorifying war and turning scared babies into heroes. The
movie adaptation would then star "Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of
those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men" (14). Wars would look
good, and we would be sure to have more of them. The narrator promised that it
won't be that kind of book, and that he'd call it The Children's Crusade.
He and Mary were friends starting at that moment. That night, he and Bernard
looked through Bernard's library for information on the real Children's
Crusade, a war slightly more sordid than the other crusades. The scheme was
cooked up by two monks who planned to raise an army of European children and
then sell them into slavery in North Africa. Sleepless later that night, the
narrator looked at a history of Dresden published in 1908. The book described a
Prussian siege of the city in the eighteenth century.

In
1967, the narrator and O'Hare returned to Dresden. On the flight over, the
narrator got stuck in Boston due to delays. In a hotel in Boston, he felt that
someone had played with all the clocks. With every twitch of a clock, it seemed
that years passed. That night, he read a book by Roethke and another book by
Erika Ostrovsky. The Ostrovsky book, Céline and His Vision, is a story
of a French soldier whose skull gets cracked during World War I. He hears
noises and suffers from insomnia forever afterward, and at night he writes
grotesque, macabre novels. Céline sees death and the passage of time as the
same process.

The
narrator also read about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the hotel
room's Gideon Bible. He calls attention to the moment when Lot's wife looks
back and is turned into a pillar of salt. He loves her for that act, because it
was such a human thing to do.

Now,
he presents us with his war book. He will strive to look back no more. This
book, he says, is a failure. It was bound to be a failure because it was
written by a pillar of salt. He gives us the first line and the last, and the
central story of the novel is ready to begin.

Chapter
Two. Summary:

"Billy
Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." He wanders from moment to moment in his
life, experiencing chronologically disparate events right after one another. He
sees his birth and death and everything in between, all out of order, with no
pattern to predict what will come next. Or so he believes.

Billy
was born in 1922 in Ilium, New York. Tall, thin, and embarrassingly weak, he
made an unlikely soldier. He was going to night school in optometry when he got
drafted to fight in World War II. His father died in a hunting accident before
Billy left for Europe. The Germans captured Billy during the Battle of the
Bulge. In 1945 he returned to the States, finished optometry school, and married
the daughter of the school's owner. During the engagement, he was hospitalized
for a nervous breakdown. After his release, he finished school, married the
girl, got his own practice with help from his father-in-law, became quite rich,
and had two kids. In 1968 he was the sole survivor of a plane crash. While he
was in the hospital, his wife died of carbon monoxide poisoning. He returned
home for rest, but without warning one day he went to New York and claimed on
the radio that he had been kidnapped by aliens called Trafalmadorians. Billy's
daughter, Barbara, retrieved him from New York. A month later, Billy wrote a
letter to Ilium's newspaper describing the aliens. The Trafalmadorians are
shaped like two-foot tall toilet plungers, suction cup down.

We
now see Billy working on a second letter describing the Trafalmadorian
conception of time. All time happens simultaneously, so a man who dies is
actually still alive, since all moments exist at all times. Billy works on his
letter, oblivious to the increasingly frantic shouts of his daughter, who has
stopped by to check on him. The burden of caring for Billy has made Barbara
difficult and unforgiving.

We
move to the first time Billy gets unstuck in time. Billy receives minimal
training as a chaplain's assistant before being shipped to Europe. He arrives
in September of 1944, right in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge. He never
meets his chaplain or gets a proper helmet or boots. Although he survives the
onslaught, he wanders behind German lines, tagging along with two scouts and an
anti-tank gunner named Roland Weary. Weary repeatedly saves Billy's life,
mostly by not allowing him to lie down in the snow and die. Although the scouts
are experienced, Weary is as new to the war as Billy is; he just fancies
himself as having more of a taste for it. By firing the anti-tank gun
incorrectly, his gun crew put scorch marks into the ground. Because of those
marks, the position of the gun crew was revealed to a Tiger tank that fired
back. Everyone but Weary was killed. He is stupid, fat, cruel, and violent.
Back in Pittsburgh he was friendless, and constantly getting ditched. His
father collects torture devices. He carries a cruel trench knife, various
pieces of equipment that have been issued to him, and a pornographic photo of a
woman with a horse. He plagues Billy with macho, aggressive conversation. In
his own mind, Weary narrates the war stories he will one day tell. Although he
is almost as clumsy and slow as Billy, he imagines himself and the two scouts as
fast friends. In his head he dubs them and himself the Three Musketeers, and
tells himself the story of how the Three Musketeers saved the life of a dumb,
incompetent college kid.

Straggling
behind the others, Billy becomes unstuck in time. He goes back to the red light
of pre-birth and then forward again to a day in his childhood with his father
at the YMCA. His father tries to teach him how to swim by the sink-or-swim
method. Billy sinks, and someone has to rescue him. He jumps forward to 1965,
when he is a middle-aged man visiting his mother in a nursing home. Then he
jumps to 1958, and Billy is attending his son's Little League banquet. Leap to
1961: Billy is at a party, totally drunk and cheating on his wife for the first
and only time. Then, he is back in 1944, being shaken awake by Weary. Weary and
Billy catch up to the scouts. Dogs are barking in the distance, and the Germans
are searching for them. Billy is in bad shape: he looks like hell, can barely
walk, and is having vivid (but pleasant) hallucinations. Weary tries to be
chummy with his supposed buddies, the scouts, grouping himself with them as
"the Three Musketeers." The scouts coldly tell him that he and Billy
are on their own.

Billy
goes to 1957, when he gives a speech as the newly elected president of the
Lion's Club. Although he has a momentary bout of stage fright, his speech is
beautiful. He has taken a public speaking course.

He
leaps back to 1944. Ditched again, Weary starts to beat Billy up, furious that
this weak college kid has cost him his membership in "the Three
Musketeers." He cruelly beats Billy, who is in such a state that he can
only laugh. Suddenly, Weary realizes that they are being watched by five German
soldiers and a police dog. They have been captured.

Chapter
Three. Summary:

The
troops who capture Billy and Weary are irregulars, newly enlisted men using the
equipment of newly dead soldiers. Their commander is a tough German corporal,
whose beautiful boots are a trophy from a battle long ago. Once, while waxing
the boots, he told a soldier that if you stared into their shine you could see
Adam and Eve. Though Billy has never heard the corporal's claim, looking into
the boots now he sees Adam and Eve and loves them for their innocence,
vulnerability, and beauty. A blond fifteen-year-old boy helps Billy to his
feet; he looks as beautiful and innocent as Eve. In the distance, shots sound
out as the two scouts are killed. Waiting in ambush, they were found and shot
in the backs of their heads.

The
Germans take Weary's things, including the pornographic picture, which the two
old men grin about, and Weary's boots. The fifteen-year old gets Weary's boots,
and Weary gets the boy's clogs. Weary and Billy are made to march a long
distance to a cottage where American POWs are being detained. The soldiers
there say nothing. Billy falls asleep, his head on the shoulder of a Jewish
chaplain.

Billy
leaps in time to 1967, although it takes him a while to figure out the date. He
is giving an eye exam in his office in Ilium. His car, visible outside his
window, has conservative stickers on the bumper; the stickers were gifts from
his father-in-law.

He
leaps back to the war. A German is kicking his feet, telling him to wake up.
The Americans are assembled outside for photographs. The photographer takes
pictures of Billy's and Weary's feet as evidence of how poorly equipped the
American troops are. They stage photos of Billy being captured. Billy then
returns to 1967, driving to the Lion's club. He drives through a black ghetto,
an area recovering from recent riots and fires. He largely ignores what he sees
there. At the Lion's club, a marine major talks about the need to continue the
fight in Vietnam. He advocates bombing North Vietnam into the Stone Age, if
necessary, and Billy does not think of the horror of bombing, which he
has witnessed himself. He is simply having lunch. The narrator mentions that he
has a prayer on the wall of his office: "God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and
wisdom always to tell the difference."

The
narrator tells us that Billy cannot change past, present, or future. After
lunch, Billy goes home. He is a wealthy man now, with a son in the Green Berets
and a daughter about to get married; he also is seized occasionally by sudden
and inexplicable bouts of weeping. During one of these spells, he closes his
eyes and finds himself back in World War II. He is marching with an
ever-growing line of Americans making their way through Luxembourg. They cross
into Germany, being filmed by the Germans who want a record of their great
victory. Weary's feet are sore and bloody from marching on the German boy's
clogs. The Americans are sorted by rank, and a colonel tries to talk with
Billy. The colonel is dying; he tries to be chummy with Billy. He has always
wanted to be called "Wild Bob" by his men. He dreams of having a
reunion of his men in his hometown of Cody, Wyoming. He invites Billy and the
other men to come. Vonnegut mentions that he and Bernard O'Hare were there when
the colonel gave his invitation. All of the POWs are put into train cars. The
train does not leave for two days; during that time Wild Bob dies. The boxcars
are so crowded that to sleep the men have to take turns lying down. When the
train finally begins its trek deeper into Germany, Billy jumps through time
again. It is 1967, and he is about to be kidnapped for the first time by the
Trafalmadorians.

Chapter
Four. Summary:

In
1967, on his daughter's wedding night, Billy cannot sleep. Because he is unstuck
in time, he knows that he will soon be kidnapped by a Trafalmadorian flying
saucer. He kills time unproductively in the meantime. He watches a war movie,
and because he is unstuck in time the movie goes forward and then backward. He
goes out to meet the ship, and he is taken as planned. As the ship shoots out
into space, Billy is jarred back to 1944. In the boxcar, none of the men want
Billy to sleep next to them because he yells and thrashes in his sleep. He is
forced to sleep while standing. In another car, Weary dies of gangrene in his
feet. As he slowly dies over the course of days, he tells people again and
again about the Three Musketeers. He also asks that someone get revenge for him
on the man who caused his death. He blames Billy Pilgrim, of course.

The
train finally arrives at a camp, and Billy and the other men are pushed and
prodded along. The camp is full of dying Russian POWs. At points, Vonnegut
likens the Russians' faces to radium dials. The Americans are all given coats;
Billy's is too small. They go into a delousing station, where all of the men
strip naked. Billy has one of the worst bodies there; he is skinny and weak,
and a German soldier comments on that fact. We are introduced briefly to Edgar
Derby and Paul Lazarro. Derby is the oldest POW there, a man who pulled strings
to get into the army. He is a high school teacher from Indianapolis, and he is
physically sturdy despite his forty-four years of age. He will be shot after
the Dresden bombing for trying to steal a teapot.

Paul
Lazarro is a car thief from Illinois. His body is even weaker and less healthy
than Billy's. He was in Roland Weary's boxcar, and he vowed solemnly to Weary
that he would find and kill Billy Pilgrim. When the scalding water turns on,
Billy leaps back to his infancy. His mother has just finished giving him a
bath. He then leaps forward to a Sunday game of golf, played with three other
optometrists. Then, he leaps in time to the space ship, on his first trip to
Trafalmadore. He talks with one of his captors about time, and he says that the
Trafalmadorians sound like they do not believe in free will. The alien replies
that in all of the inhabited planets of the galaxy, Earth is the only one whose
people believe in the concept of free will.

Chapter
Five. Summary:

En
route to Trafalmadore, Billy asks for something to read. The only human novel
is Valley of the Dolls, and when Billy asks for a Trafalmadorian novel,
he learns that the aliens' novels are slim, sleek volumes. Because they have a
different concept of time, Trafalmadorians have novels arranged by
juxtaposition of marvelous moments. The books have no cause or effect or
chronology; their beauty is in the arrangement of events meant to be read simultaneously.
Billy jumps in time to a visit to the Grand Canyon taken when he was twelve
years old. He is terrified of the canyon. His mother touches him and he wets
his pants. He jumps forward in time just ten days, to later in the same
vacation. He is visiting Carlsbad Caverns. The ranger turns the lights off, so
that the tourists can experience total darkness. But Billy sees a light nearby:
the radium dial of his father's watch.

Billy
jumps back to the war. The Germans think Billy is one of the funniest creatures
they've seen in all of the war. His coat is preposterously small, and on his
already awkward body it looks ridiculous. The Americans give their names and
serial numbers so that they can be reported to the Red Cross, and then they are
marched to sheds occupied by middle-aged British POWs. The British welcome them
with singing. These British POWs are officers, some of the first Brits taken
prisoner in the war. They have been prisoners for four years. Due to a clerical
error early in the war, the Red Cross shipped them an incredible surplus of
food, which they have hoarded cleverly. Consequently, they are some of the
best-fed people in Europe. Their German captors adore them.

To
prepare for their American guests, the Brits have cleaned and set out party
favors. Candles and soap, supplied by the Germans, are plentiful: the British
do not know that these items are made from the bodies of Holocaust victims.
They have prepared a huge dinner and a dramatic adaptation of Cinderella. Billy
is so unhinged that his laughter at the performance becomes hysterical shrieking,
and he is taken to the hospital and doped up on morphine. Edgar Derby watches
over him, reading The Red Badge of Courage. He leaps in time to the
mental ward where he recovered in 1948.

In
the mental ward, Billy's bed is next to the bed of Elliot Rosewater. Like
Billy, he has little love for life, in part because of things he saw and did in
the war. He is the man who introduces Billy to the science fiction of Kilgore
Trout. Billy is enduring one of his mother's dreaded visits. She is a simple,
religious woman. She makes Billy feel worse just by being there. Billy leaps
back in time to the POW camp. A British colonel talks to Derby; after the newly
arrived Americans shaved, the British were shocked by how young they all were.
Derby tells of how he was captured: the Americans were pushed back into a
forest, and the Germans rained shells on them until they surrendered.

Billy
leaps back to the hospital. He is being visited by his ugly, overweight fiancée
Valencia. He knew he was going crazy when he proposed to her. He does not want
to marry her. She is visiting now, eating a Three Musketeers bar and wearing a
diamond engagement ring that Billy found while in Germany. Elliot tells her
about The Gospel from Outer Space, a Kilgore Trout book.

Valencia
tries to talk to Billy about plans for their wedding and marriage, but he is
not too involved. He leaps forward in time to the zoo on Trafalmadore, where he
was on display when he was forty-four years old. The habitat is furnished with
Sears and Roebuck furniture. He is naked. He answers questions posed by the
Trafalmadorian tourists. He learns that there are five sexes among the
Trafalmadorians, but the sex difference is only visible in the fourth
dimension. On earth there are actually seven sexes, all necessary to the
production of children; earthlings just do not notice the sex difference
between themselves because many of the sex acts occur in the fourth dimension.
These ideas baffle Billy, and they in turn are baffled by his linear concept of
time. Billy expects the Trafalmadorians to be concerned about or horrified by
the wars on earth. He worries that earthlings will eventually threaten all the
other races in the galaxy, causing the eventual destruction of the universe.
The Trafalmadorians put their hands over their eyes, which lets Billy know that
he is being stupid.

The
Trafalmadorians already know how the universe will end: during experiments with
a new fuel, one of their test pilots pushes a button and the entire universe
will disappear. They cannot prevent it. It has always happened that way. Billy
correctly concludes that trying to prevent wars on Earth is futile. The Trafalmadorians
also have wars, but they choose to ignore them. They spend their time looking
at the pleasant moments rather than the unpleasant ones; they suggest that
humans learn to do the same.

Billy
leaps back in time to his wedding night. It is six months after his release
from the mental ward. The narrator reminds us that Valencia and her father are
very rich, and Billy will benefit greatly from his marriage to her. After they
have sex, Valencia tries to ask Billy questions about the war. She wants a
heroic war story, but Billy does not really respond to her. He has a crazy
thought about the war, which Vonnegut says would make a good epitaph for Billy,
and for the author, too: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing
hurt." He jumps in time to that night in the prison camp. Edgar Derby has
fallen asleep. Billy, doped up still from the morphine, wanders out of the
hospital shed. He snags himself on a barbed wire fence, and cannot extract
himself until a Russian helps him.

Billy
never really says a word to the Russian. He wanders to the latrine, where the
Americans are sick from the feasting. A long period without food followed by a
feast almost always results in violent sickness. Among the sick Americans is a
soldier complaining that he has shit his brains out. It is Vonnegut. Billy
leaves, passing by three Englishmen who watch the Americans' sickness with
disgust. Billy jumps in time again, back to his wedding night. He and his wife
are cozy in bed. He jumps in time again, to 1944. It is before he left for
Europe; he is riding the train from South Carolina, where he was receiving his
training, all the way back to Ilium for his father's funeral.

We
return to Billy's morphine night in the POW camp. Paul Lazarro is carried into
the hospital; while attempting to steal cigarettes from a sleeping British
officer, he was beaten up. The officer is the one carrying him. Seeing now how
puny Lazarro is, the officer feels guilty for hitting him so hard. But he is
disgusted by the American POWs. A German soldier who adores the British
officers comes in and apologizes for the inconvenience of hosting the
Americans. He assures the Brits in the room that the Americans will soon be
shipped off for forced labor in Dresden. The German officer reads propaganda
materials written by Howard Campbell, Jr., a captured American who is now a
Nazi. Campbell condemns the self-loathing of the American poor, the
inequalities of America's economic system, and the miserable behavior of
American POWs. Billy falls asleep and wakes up in 1968, where his daughter
Barbara is scolding him. Barbara notices the house is icy cold and goes to call
the oil-burner man.

Billy
leaps in time to the Trafalmadorian zoo, where Montana Wildhack, a motion
picture star, has been brought in to mate with him. Initially unconscious, she
wakes to find naked Billy and thousands of Trafalmadorians outside their
habitat. They're clapping. She screams. Eventually, though, she comes to love
and trust Billy. After a week they're sleeping together. He travels in time back
to his bed in 1968. The oil-burner man has fixed the problem with the heater.
Billy has just had a wet dream about Montana Wildhack. The next day, he returns
to work. His assistants are surprised to see him, because they thought that he
would never practice again. He has the first patient sent in, a boy whose
father died in Vietnam. Billy tries to comfort the boy by telling him about the
Trafalmadorian concept of time. The boy's mother informs the receptionist that
Billy is going crazy. Barbara comes to take him home, sick with worry about
what how to deal with him.

Chapter
Six. Summary:

Billy
wakes after his morphine night in POW camp irresistibly drawn to two tiny
treasures. They draw him like magnets; they are hidden in the lining of his
coat. It will be revealed later on exactly what they are. He goes back to
sleep, and wakes up to the sounds of the British building a new latrine. They
have abandoned their old latrine and their meeting hall to the Americans. The
man who beat up Lazarro stops by to make sure he is all right, and Lazarro
promises that he is going to have the man killed after the war. After the
amused Brit leaves, Lazarro tells Derby and Billy that revenge is life's
sweetest pleasure. He once brutally tortured a dog that bit him. He is going to
have all of his enemies killed after the war. He tells Billy that Weary was his
buddy, and he is going to avenge him by having Billy shot after the war.
Because of his time hopping, Billy knows that this is true. He will be shot in
1976. At that time, the United States has split into twenty tiny nations. Billy
will be lecturing in Chicago on the Trafalmadorian concept of time and the
fourth dimension. He tells the spectators that he is about to die, and urges
them to accept it. After the lecture, he is shot in the head by a high-powered
laser gun.

Back
in the POW camp, Billy, Derby, and Lazarro go the theater to elect a leader. On
the way over, they see a Brit drawing a line in the dirt to separate the
American and British sections of the compound. In the theater, Americans are
sleeping anywhere that they can. A Brit lectures them on hygiene, and Edgar
Derby is elected leader. Only two or three men actually have the energy to
vote. Billy dresses himself in a piece of azure curtain and Cinderella's boots.
The Americans ride the train to Dresden. Dresden is a beautiful city, appearing
on the horizon like something out of a fairy tale. They are met by eight German
irregulars, boys and old men who will be in charge of them for the rest of the
war. They march through town towards their new home. The people of Dresden
watch them, and most of them are amused by Billy's outlandish costume. One
surgeon is not. He scolds Billy about dignity and representing his country and
war not being a joke, but Billy is honestly perplexed by the man's anger. He
shows the man his two treasures from the lining of his coat: a two-carat
diamond and some false teeth. The Americans are brought to their new home, a
converted building originally for the slaughter of pigs. The building has a
large 5 on it. The POWs are taught the German name for their new home, in case
they get lost in the city. In English, it is called Slaughterhouse Five.

Chapter
Seven. Summary:

Billy
is on a plane next to his father-in-law. Billy and a number of optometrists
have chartered a plane to go to a convention in Montreal. There's a barbershop
quartet on board. Billy's father-in-law loves it when they sing songs mocking
the Polish. Vonnegut mentions that in Germany Billy saw a Pole getting executed
for having sex with a German girl. Billy leaps in time to his wandering behind
the German lines with the two scouts and Roland Weary. He leaps in time again
to the plane crash. Everyone dies but him. The plane has crashed in Vermont,
and Billy is found by Austrian ski instructors. When he hears them speaking
German, he thinks he's back in the war. He is unconscious for days, and during
that time he dreams about the days right before the bombing.

He
remembers a boy named Werner Gluck, one of the guards. He was good-natured, as
awkward and puny as Billy. One day, Gluck and Billy and Derby were looking for
the kitchen. Derby and Billy were pulling a two-wheeled cart; it was their duty
to bring dinner back for the boys. Gluck pulled a door open, thinking the
kitchen might be there, and instead revealed naked teenage girls showering,
refugees from another city that was bombed. The women scream and Gluck shuts
the door. When they finally find the kitchen, an old cook talks with the trio
critically and proclaims that all the real soldiers are dead. Billy also
remembers working in the malt syrup factory in Dresden. The syrup is for
pregnant women, and it is fortified with vitamins. The POWs do everything they
can to sneak spoonfuls of it. Billy sneaks a spoonful to Edgar Derby, who is
outside. He bursts into tears after he tastes it.

Chapter
Eight. Summary:

Howard
Campbell, Jr., the American-turned-Nazi propagandist, visits the captives of
Slaughterhouse Five. He wears an elaborate costume of his own design, a cross
between cowboy outfit and a Nazi uniform. The POWs are tired and unhealthy,
undernourished and overworked. Campbell offers them good eating if they join
his Free American Corps. The Corps is Campbell's idea. Composed of Americans
fighting for the Germans, they will be sent to fight on the Russian front.
After the war, they will be repatriated through Switzerland. Campbell reasons
that the Americans will have to fight the Soviet Union sooner or later, and
they might as well get it out of the way. Edgar Derby rises for his finest
moment. He denounces Campbell soundly, praises American forms of government,
and speaks of the brotherhood between Russians and Americans. Air raid sirens
sound, and everyone takes cover in a meat locker. The firebombing will not
occur until tomorrow night; these sirens are only a false alarm. Billy dozes,
and then leaps in time to an argument with his daughter Barbara. She is
worrying about what should be done about Billy. She tells him that she feels
like she could kill Kilgore Trout.

We
move to Billy's first meeting with Trout, which happened in 1964. He is out
driving when he recognizes Trout from the jackets of his books. Trout's books
have never made money, so he works as a newspaper circulation man, bullying and
terrorizing newspaper delivery boys. One of Trout's boys quits, and Billy
offers to help Trout deliver the papers on the boy's route. He gives Trout a
ride. Trout is overwhelmed by meeting an avid fan. He has only received one
letter in the course of his career, and the letter was crazed. It was written
by none other than Billy's friend from the mental ward, Elliot Rosewater. Billy
invites Kilgore Trout to his anniversary party.

At
the party, Trout is obnoxious, but the optometrists and their spouses are still
enchanted by having an actual writer among them. A barbershop quartet sings
"That Old Gang of Mine," and Billy is visibly disturbed. After giving
Valencia her gift, he flees upstairs. Lying in bed, Billy remembers the bombing
of Dresden.

We
see the events as Billy remembers them. He and the other POWs, along with four
of their guards, spend the night in the meat locker. The girls from the shower
were being killed in a shallower shelter nearby. The POWs emerge at noon the
next day into what looks like the surface of the moon. The guards gape at the
destruction. They look like a silent film of a barbershop quartet.

We
move to the Trafalmadorian Zoo. Montana Wildhack asked Billy to tell her a
story. He tells her about the burnt logs, actually corpses. He tells her about
the great monuments and buildings of the city turned into a flat, lunar
surface.

We
move to Dresden. Without food or water, the POWs have to march to find some if
they are to survive. They make their way across the treacherous landscape, much
of it still hot, bits of crumbling. They are attacked by American fighter
planes. The end up in the suburbs, at an inn that has prepared to receive any
survivors. The innkeeper lets the Americans sleep in the stable. He provides
them with food and drink, and goes out to bid them goodnight as they go to bed.

Chapter
Nine. Summary:

When
Billy is in the hospital in Vermont, Valencia goes crazy with grief. Driving to
the hospital, she gets in a terrible accident. She gears up her car and
continues driving to the hospital, determined to get there even though she
leaves her exhaust system behind. She pulls into the hospital driveway and
falls unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning. An hour later, she is dead.

Billy
is oblivious, unconscious in his bed, dreaming and time traveling. In the bed
next to him is Bertram Copeland Ruumford, an arrogant retired Brigadier General
in the Air Force Reserve. He is a seventy-year-old Harvard professor and the
official historian of the Air Force, and he is in superb physical condition. He
has a twenty-three year-old high school dropout with an IQ of 103. He is an
arrogant jingoist. Currently he is working on a history of the Air Corp in
World War II. He has to write a section on the success of the Dresden bombing.
Ruumfoord's wife Lily is scared of Billy, who mumbles deliriously. Ruumfoord is
disgusted by him, because all he does in his sleep in quit or surrender.

Barbara
comes to visit Billy. She is in a horrible state, drugged up so she can
function after the recent tragedies. Billy cannot hear her. He is remembering
an eye exam he gave to a retarded boy a decade ago. Then he leaps in time when
he was sixteen years old. In the waiting room of a doctor's office, he sees an
old man troubled by horrible gas. Billy opens his eyes and he is back in the
hospital in Vermont. His son Robert, a decorated Green Beret, is there. Billy
closes his eyes again.

He
misses Valencia's funeral because he is till too sick. People assume that he is
a vegetable, but actually he is thinking actively about Trafalmadorians and the
lectures he will deliver about time and the permanence of moments. Overhearing
Ruumford talk about Dresden, Billy finally speaks up and tells Ruumford that he
was at Dresden. Ruumford ignores him, trying to convince himself and the
doctors that Billy has Echonalia, a condition where the sufferer simply repeats
what he hears.

Billy
leaps in time to May of 1945, two days after the end of the war in Europe. In a
coffin-shaped green wagon, Billy and five other Americans ride with loot from
the suburbs of Dresden. They found the wagon, attached to two horses, and have
been using it to carry things that they have taken. The homes have been
abandoned because the Russians are coming, and the Americans have been looting.
When they go to the slaughterhouse and the other five Americans loot among the
ruins, Billy naps in the wagon. He has a cavalry pistol and a Luftwaffe
ceremonial saber. He wakes; two Germans, a husband-and-wife pair of
obstetricians, are angry about how the Americans have treated the horses. The
horses' hooves are shattered, their mouths are bleeding from the bits, and they
are extremely thirsty. Billy goes around to look at the horses, and he bursts
into tears. It is the only time he cries in the whole war. Vonnegut reminds the
reader of the epigraph at the start of the book, an excerpt from a Christmas
carol that describes the baby Jesus as not crying. Billy cries very little.

He
leaps in time back to the hospital in Vermont, where Ruumford is finally
questioning Billy about Dresden. Barbara takes Billy home later that day. Billy
is watched by a nurse; he is supposed to be under observation, but he escapes
to New York City and gets a hotel room. He plans to tell the world about the
Trafalmadorians and their concept of time. The next day, Billy goes into a
bookstore that sells pornography, peep shows, and Kilgore Trout novels. Billy
is only interested in Kilgore Trout novels. In one of the pornographic
magazines, there is an article about the disappearance of porn star Montana
Wildhack. Later, Billy sneaks onto a radio talk show by posing as a literary
critic. The critics take turns discussing the novel, but when Billy gets his
turn he talks about Trafalmadore. At the next commercial break, he is made to
leave. When he goes back to his hotel room and lies down, he travels back in
time to Trafalmadore. Montana is nursing their child. She wears a locket with a
picture of her mother and the same prayer that Billy had on his office wall in
Ilium.

Chapter
Ten. Summary:

Vonnegut
tells us that Robert Kennedy died last night. Martin Luther King, Jr., was
assassinated a month ago. Body counts are reported every night on the news as
signs that the war in Vietnam is being won. Vonnegut's father died years ago of
natural causes. He left Billy all of his guns, which rust. Billy claims that on
Trafalmadore the aliens are more interested in Darwin than Jesus. Darwin, says
Vonnegut, taught that death was the means to progress. Vonnegut recalls the
pleasant trip he made to Dresden with his old war buddy, O'Hare. They were
looking up facts about Dresden in a little book when O'Hare came across a
passage on the exploding world population. By 2000, the book predicts, the
world will have a population of 7 billion people. Vonnegut says that he
supposes they will all want dignity.

Billy
Pilgrim travels back in time to 1945, two days after the bombing of Dresden.
German authorities find the POWs in the innkeeper's stable. Along with other
POWs, they are brought back to Dresden to dig for bodies. Bodies are trapped in
protected pockets under the rubble, and the POWs are put to work bringing them
up. But after one of the workers is lowered into a pocket and dies of the dry
heaves, the Germans settle on incinerating the bodies instead of retrieving
them. During this time, Edgar Derby is caught with a teapot he took from the
ruins. He is tried and executed by a firing squad.

Then
the POWs were returned to the stable. The German soldiers went off to fight the
Soviets. Spring comes, and one day in May the war is over. Billy and the other
men go outside into the abandoned suburbs. They find a horse-drawn wagon, the
wagon green and shaped like a coffin. The birds sing, "Po-tee-weet?"

The Sound and
the Fury

Summary
of April Seventh, 1928:

This
section of the book is commonly referred to as "Benjy's section"
because it is narrated by the retarded youngest son of the Compson family,
Benjamin Compson. At this point in the story, Benjy is 33 years old - in fact,
today is his birthday - but the story skips back and forth in time as various
events trigger memories. When the reader first plunges into this narrative, the
jumps in time are difficult to navigate or understand, although many scenes are
marked by recurring images, sounds, or words. In addition, a sort of chronology
can be established depending on who is Benjy's caretaker: first Versh when
Benjy is a child, then T. P. when he is an adolescent, then Luster when he is
an adult. One other fact that may confuse first-time readers is the repetition
of names. There are, for example, two Jasons (father and son), two Quentins
(Benjy's brother and Caddy's daughter), and two Mauries (Benjy himself before
1900 and Benjy's uncle). Benjy recalls three important events: the evening of
his grandmother "Damuddy's" death in 1898, his name change in 1900,
and Caddy's sexual promiscuity and wedding in 1910, although these events are
punctuated by other memories, including the delivery of a letter to his uncle's
mistress in 1902 or 1903, Caddy's wearing perfume in 1906, a sequence of events
at the gate of the house in 1910 and 1911 that culminates in his castration,
Quentin's death in 1910, his father's death and funeral in 1912, and Roskus's
death some time after this. I will summarize each event briefly.

The
events of the present day (4/7/28) center around Luster's search for a quarter
he has lost somewhere on the property. He received this quarter from his
grandmother Dilsey in order to go to the circus that evening. Luster takes
Benjy with him as he searches by the golf course that used to be the Compson's
pasture, by the carriage house, down by the branch of the Yoknapatawpha River,
and finally near Benjy's "graveyard" of jimson flowers in a bottle.

As
the story opens, Benjy and Luster are by the golf course, where the golfers'
cries of "caddie" cause Benjy to "beller" because he
mistakes their cries for his missing sister Caddy's name. In the branch, Luster
finds a golfer's ball, which he later tries to sell to the golfers; they accuse
him of stealing it and take it from him. Luster tries to steer Benjy away from
the swing, where Miss Quentin and her "beau" (one of the musicians
from the circus) are sitting, but is unsuccessful. Quentin is furious and runs
into the house, while her friend jokes with Luster and asks him who visits Quentin.
Luster replies that there are too many male visitors to distinguish.

Luster
takes Benjy past the fence, where Benjy sees schoolgirls passing with their
satchels. Benjy moans whenever Luster tries to break from the routine path
Benjy is used to. At Benjy's "graveyard," Luster disturbs the arrangement
of flowers in the blue bottle, causing Benjy to cry. At this Luster becomes
frustrated and says "beller. You want something to beller about. All
right, then. Caddy. . . . Caddy. Beller now. Caddy" (55). Benjy's crying
summons Dilsey, Luster's grandmother, who scolds him for making Benjy cry and
for disturbing Quentin. They go in the kitchen, where Dilsey opens the oven
door so Benjy can watch the fire. Dilsey has bought Benjy a birthday cake, and
Luster blows out the candles, making Benjy cry again. Luster teases him by
closing the oven door so that the fire "goes away." Dilsey scolds
Luster again. Benjy is burned when he tries to touch the fire. His cries disturb
his mother, who comes to the kitchen and reprimands Dilsey. Dilsey gives him an
old slipper to hold, an object that he loves.

Luster
takes Benjy to the library, where his cries disturb Jason, who comes to the
door and yells at Luster. Luster asks Jason for a quarter. At dinner, Jason
interrogates Quentin about the man she was with that afternoon and threatens to
send Benjy to an asylum in Jackson. Quentin threatens to run away, and she and
Jason fight. She runs out of the room. Benjy goes to the library, where Luster
finds him and shows him that Quentin has given him a quarter. Luster dresses
Benjy for bed; when Benjy's pants are off he looks down and cries when he is
reminded of his castration. Luster puts on his nightgown and the two of them
watch as Quentin climbs out her window and down a tree. Luster puts Benjy to
bed.

Benjy's
memories, in chronological order:

Damuddy's
death, 1898: Benjy is three years old and his name at this point is still
Maury. Caddy is seven, Quentin is older (nine?) and Jason is between seven and
three.

The
four children are playing in the branch of the river. Roskus calls them to
supper, but Caddy refuses to come. She squats down in the river and gets her
dress wet; Versh tells her that her mother will whip her for that. Caddy asks
Versh to help her take her dress off, and Quentin warns him not to. Caddy takes
off her dress and Quentin hits her. The two of them fight in the branch and get
muddy. Caddy says that she will run away, which makes Maury/Benjy cry; she
immediately takes it back. Roskus asks Versh to bring the children to the
house, and Versh puts Caddy's dress back on her.

They
head up to the house, but Quentin stays behind, throwing rocks into the river.
The children notice that all the lights are on in the house and assume that
their parents are having a party. Father tells the children to be quiet and to
eat dinner in the kitchen; he won't tell them why they have to be quiet. Caddy
asks him to tell the other children to mind her for the evening, and he does.
The children hear their mother crying, which makes Maury/Benjy cry. Quentin is
also agitated by her crying, but Caddy reassures him that she is just singing.
Jason too begins to cry.

The
children go outside and down to the servants' quarters, where Frony and T. P.
(who are children at this point) have a jar of lightning bugs. Frony asks about
the funeral, and Versh scolds her for mentioning it. The children discuss the
only death they know - when their mare Nancy died and the buzzards
"undressed her" in a ditch. Caddy asks T. P. to give Maury/Benjy his
jar of lightning bugs to hold. The children go back up to the house and stop outside
the parlor window. Caddy climbs up a tree to see in the window, and the
children watch her muddy drawers as she climbs.

Dilsey
comes out of the house and yells at them. Caddy tells the others that their
parents were not doing anything inside, although she may be trying to protect
them from the truth. The children go inside and upstairs. Father comes to help
tuck them into bed in a strange room. Dilsey dresses them and tucks them in, and
they go to sleep.

Benjy's
name change, 1900: Benjy is five years old, Caddy is nine, etc.

Benjy
is sitting by the library fire and watching it. Dilsey and Caddy discuss
Benjy's new name; Dilsey wants to know why his parents have changed it, and
Caddy replies that mother said Benjamin was a better name for him than Maury
was. Dilsey says that "folks don't have no luck, changing names"
(58). Caddy brings Benjy to where her mother is lying in the bedroom with a
cloth on her head, to say good night. Benjy can hear the clock ticking and the
rain falling on the roof. Mother chides Caddy not to carry him because he is
too heavy and will ruin her posture. She holds Benjy's face in her hands and
repeats "Benjamin" over and over. Benjy cries until Caddy holds his
favorite cushion over his mother's head.

She
leads him to the fire so that he can watch it. Father picks him up, and he
watches the reflection of Caddy and Jason fighting in the library mirror.
Father puts him down and breaks up Caddy and Jason, who are fighting because
Jason cut up all of Benjy's paper dolls. Father takes Jason to the room next
door and spanks him. They all sit by the fire, and Benjy holds his cushion.
Quentin comes and sits next to them. He has been in a fight at school and has a
bruise. Father asks him about it. Versh sits next to them and tells them a
story about a "bluegum" he knows who changed his name too. Father
tells him to be quiet. Caddy and Versh feed Benjy his dinner, and the four
children sit in father's lap. Benjy says that Caddy and Quentin smell like
trees and rain.

Versh,
Caddy and Benjy go outside, December 23, 1902: Benjy is seven years old and
Caddy is eleven.

Benjy
is crying because he wants to go outside. Mother says it is too cold for him
and he will freeze his hands. She says that if he won't be quiet he will have
to go to the kitchen. Versh replies that Dilsey wants him out of the kitchen
because she has a lot of cooking to do, and Uncle Maury tells her to let him go
outside. Versh puts on his coat and they go outside; Versh tells him to keep
his hands in his pockets. Caddy comes through the gate, home from school. She
takes his hands and they run through the fallen leaves into the house. Caddy
puts him by the fire, and Versh starts to take his coat off, but Caddy asks if
she can take him outside again. Versh puts on his overshoes again, and mother
takes his face in her hands and calls him "my poor baby," but Caddy
kneels by him and tells him that he is not a poor baby at all because he has
her. Benjy notices that she smells like trees.

Caddy
and Benjy cross the yard by the barn, where the servants are killing a pig for
dinner. Caddy tells Benjy to keep his hands in his pockets and lets him hold
the letter. She wonders why Uncle Maury did not send Versh with the letter.
They cross the frozen branch and come to the Patterson's fence. Caddy takes the
letter and climbs the fence to deliver it. Mrs. Patterson comes out of the
house.

Benjy
is at the Patterson's fence. Mr. Patterson is in the garden cutting flowers.
Mrs. Patterson runs from the house to the fence, and Benjy cries when he sees
her angry eyes. She says that she told Maury not to send Benjy alone again, and
asks Benjy to give her the letter. Mr. Patterson comes running, climbs the
fence and takes the letter. Benjy runs away.

Caddy
wears perfume, 1906: Benjy is ten years old and Caddy is fourteen.

Caddy
tries to hug Benjy but he cries and pushes her away. Jason says that he must
not like her "prissy dress," and says that she thinks she is all
grown up just because she is fourteen. Caddy tries to hush Benjy, but he disturbs
their mother, who calls them to her room. Mother tells Caddy to give Benjy his
box full of cut-out stars. Caddy walks to the bathroom and washes the perfume
off. Benjy goes to the door. Caddy opens the door and hugs him; she smells like
trees again. They go into Caddy's room and she sits at her mirror. Benjy starts
to cry again. She gives him the bottle of perfume to smell and he runs away,
crying. She realizes what made him cry and tells him she will never wear it
again. They go to the kitchen, and Caddy tells Dilsey that the perfume is a
present from Benjy to her. Dilsey takes the bottle, and Caddy says that
"we don't like perfume ourselves" (43).

Caddy
in the swing, 1907?: Benjy is eleven or twelve and Caddy is fifteen or sixteen.

Benjy
is out in the yard at night. T. P. calls for him through the window. He watches
the swing, where there are "two now, then one in the swing" (47).
Caddy comes running to him, asking how he got out. She calls for T. P. Benjy
cries and pulls at her dress. Charlie, the boy she is with on the swing, comes
over and asks where T. P. is. Benjy cries and she tells Charlie to go away. He
goes, and she calls for T. P. again. Charlie comes back and puts his hands on
Caddy. She tells him to stop, because Benjy can see, but he doesn't. She says
she has to take Benjy to the house. She takes his hand and they run to the
house and up the porch steps. She hugs him, and they go inside. Charlie is
calling her, but she goes to the kitchen sink and scrubs her mouth with soap.
Benjy sees that she smells like trees again.

Benjy
sleeps alone for the first time, 1908: Benjy is thirteen years old.

Dilsey
tells Benjy that he is too old to sleep with anyone else, and that he will
sleep in Uncle Maury's room. Uncle Maury has a black eye and a swollen mouth,
and Father says that he is going to shoot Mr. Patterson. Mother scolds him and
father apologizes. He is drunk.

Dilsey
puts Benjy to bed alone, but he cries, and Dilsey comes back. Then Caddy comes
in and lies in the bed with him. She smells like trees. Dilsey says she will
leave the light on in Caddy's room so she can go back there after Benjy has
fallen asleep.

Caddy
loses her virginity, 1909: Benjy is fourteen years old and Caddy is eighteen.

Caddy
walks quickly past the door where mother, father, and Benjy are. Mother calls
her in, and she comes to the door. She glances at Benjy, then glances away. He
begins to cry. He goes to her and pulls at her dress, crying. She is against
the wall, and she starts to cry. He chases her up the stairs, crying. She stops
with her back against the wall, crying, and looks at him with her hand on her
mouth. Benjy pushes her into the bathroom.

Caddy's
wedding, 1910: Benjy is fifteen years old and Caddy is nineteen.

Benjy,
Quentin, and T. P. are outside the barn, and T. P. has given Benjy some
sarsaparilla to drink; they are both drunk. Quentin pushes T. P. into the pig
trough. They fight, and T. P. pushes Benjy into the trough. Quentin beats T.
P., who can't stop laughing. He keeps saying "whooey!". Versh comes
and yells at T. P. Quentin gives Benjy some more sarsaparilla to drink, and he
cries. T. P. takes him to the cellar, and then goes to a tree outside the
parlor. T. P. drinks some more. He gets a box for Benjy to stand on so he can
see into the parlor. Through the window, Benjy can see Caddy in her wedding
veil, and he cries out, trying to call to her. T. P. tries to quiet him. Benjy
falls down and hits his head on the box. T. P. drags him to the cellar to get
more sarsaparilla, and they fall down the stairs into the cellar. They climb up
the stairs and fall against the fence and the box. Benjy is crying loudly, and
Caddy comes running. Quentin also comes and begins kicking T. P. Caddy hugs
Benjy, but she doesn't smell like trees any more, and Benjy begins to cry.

Benjy
at the gate crying, 1910.

Benjy
is in the house looking at the gate and crying, and T. P. tells him that no
matter how hard he cries, Caddy is not coming back.

Later,
Benjy stands at the gate crying, and watches some schoolgirls pass by with
their satchels. Benjy howls at them, trying to speak, and they run by. Benjy
runs along the inside of the fence next to them to the end of his yard. T. P.
comes to get him and scolds him for scaring the girls.

Quentin's
death, 1910.

Benjy
is lying in T. P.'s bed at the servants' quarters, where T. P. is throwing
sticks into a fire. Dilsey and Roskus discuss Quentin's death without
mentioning his name or Caddy's name. Roskus talks about the curse on the
family, saying "aint the sign of it laying right there on that bed. Aint the
sign of it been here for folks to see fifteen years now" (29). Dilsey
tells him to be quiet, but he continues, saying that there have been two signs
now (Benjy's retardation and Quentin's death), and that there would be one
more. Dilsey warns him not to mention Caddy's name. He replies that "they
aint no luck on this place" (29). Dilsey tucks Benjy into T. P.'s bed and
pulls the covers up.

Benjy
attacks a girl outside the gate and is castrated, 1911: Benjy is sixteen years
old.

Benjy
is standing at the gate crying, and the schoolgirls come by. They tell each
other that he just runs along the inside of the fence and can't catch them. He
unlatches the gate and chases them, trying to talk to them. They scream and run
away. He catches one girl and tries to talk to her, perhaps tries to rape her.

Later,
father talks about how angry Mr. Burgess (her father) is, and wants to know how
Benjy got outside the gate. Jason says that he bets father will have to send
Benjy to the asylum in Jackson now, and father tells him to hush.

Mr.
Compson's death, 1912: Benjy is seventeen.

Benjy wakes
up and T. P. brings him into the kitchen where Dilsey is singing. She stops
singing when Benjy begins to cry. She tells T. P. to take him outside, and they
go to the branch and down by the barn. Roskus is in the barn milking a cow, and
he tells T. P. to finish milking for him because he can't use his right hand
any more. He says again that there is no luck on this place.

Later
that day, Dilsey tells T. P. to take Benjy and the baby girl Quentin down to
the servants' quarters to play with Luster, who is still a child. Frony scolds
Benjy for taking a toy away from Quentin, and brings them up to the barn.
Roskus is watching T. P. milk a cow.

Later,
T. P. and Benjy are down by the ditch where Nancy's bones are. Benjy can smell
father's death. T. P. takes Benjy and Quentin to his house, where Roskus is
sitting next to the fire. He says "that's three, thank the Lawd . . . I
told you two years ago. They aint no luck on this place" (31). He comments
on the bad luck of never mentioning a child's mother's name and bringing up a
child never to know its mother. Dilsey shushes him, asking him if he wants to
make Benjy cry again. Dilsey puts him to bed in Luster's bed, laying a piece of
wood between him and Luster.

Mr.
Compson's funeral, 1912.

Benjy
and T. P. wait at the corner of the house and watch Mr. Compson's casket
carried by. Benjy can see his father lying there through the glass in the
casket.

Trip
to the cemetery, 1912.

Benjy
waits for his mother to get into the carriage. She comes out and asks where
Roskus is. Dilsey says that he can't move his arms today, so T. P. will drive
them. Mother says she is afraid to let T. P. drive, but she gets in the
carriage anyway. Mother says that maybe it would be for the best if she and
Benjy were killed in an accident, and Dilsey tells her not to talk that way.
Benjy begins to cry and Dilsey gives him a flower to hold. They begin to drive,
and mother says she is afraid to leave the baby Quentin at home. She asks T. P.
to turn the carriage around. He does, and it tips precariously but doesn't
topple. They return to the house, where Jason is standing outside with a pencil
behind his ear. Mother tells him that they are going to the cemetery, and he
asks her if that was all she came back to tell him. She says she would feel
safer if he came, and he tells her that Father and Quentin won't hurt her. This
makes her cry, and Jason tells her to stop. Jason tells T. P. to drive, and
they take off again.

Roskus's
death, later 1920s: Luster is old enough to take care of Benjy by now.

Dilsey
is "moaning" at the servants' quarters. Benjy begins to cry and the
dog begins to howl, and Dilsey stops moaning. Frony tells Luster to take them
down to the barn, but Luster says he won't go down there for fear he will see
Roskus's ghost like he did last night, waving his arms.

Analysis
of April 7, 1928:

The
title of this novel comes from Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act five, scene five, in
Macbeth's famous speech about the meaninglessness of life. He states that it is
"a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / signifying
nothing." One could argue that Benjy is the "idiot" referred to
in this speech, for indeed his section seems, at first reading, to
"signify nothing." No one vignette in his narrative seems to be
particularly important, much of it detailing the minutiae of his daily routine.
His speech itself, the "bellering" with which me makes himself heard,
does, in fact, "signify nothing," since he is unable to express
himself even when he wants to in a way other than howling. However, Benjy
Compson is not merely an idiot, and his section is much more meaningful than it
first seems.

When
discussing Mr. Compson's death, Roskus states that Benjy "know a lot more
than folks thinks" (31), and in fact, for all his idiocy, Benjy does sense
when things are wrong with his self-contained world, especially when they
concern his sister Caddy. Like an animal, Benjy can "smell" when
Caddy has changed; when she wears perfume, he states that she no longer smells
"like trees," and the servants claim that he can smell death. He can
also sense somehow when Caddy has lost her virginity; she has changed to him.
From the time she loses her virginity on, she no longer smells like trees to him.
Although his section at first presents itself as an objective snapshot of a
retarded boy's perceptions of the world, it is more ordered and more
intelligent than that.

Most
of the memories Benjy relates in his section have to do with Caddy, and specifically
with moments of loss related to Caddy. The first memory of Damuddy's death, for
example, marks a change in his family structure and a change in his brother
Jason, who was the closest to Damuddy and slept in her room. His many memories
of Caddy are mostly concerned with her sexuality, a fact that changes her
relationship with him and eventually removes her from his life. His later
memories are also associated with some sort of loss: the loss of his pasture,
of his father, and the loss associated with his castration. Critics have
pointed out that Benjy's narrative is "timeless," that he cannot
distinguish between present and past and therefore relives his memories as they
occur to him. If this is the case, he is caught in a process of constantly
regenerating his sister in memory and losing her simultaneously, of creating
and losing at the same time. His life is a constant cycle of loss and
degenerative change.

If
Benjy is trapped in a constantly replaying succession of losses, the objects
that he fixates on seem to echo this state. He loves fire, for instance, and
often stares into the "bright shapes" of the fire while the world
revolves around him. The word "fire" is mentioned numerous times in
the memory of his name change. Caddy and the servants know that he stops crying
when he looks at the fire, which is the reason in the present day that Luster
makes a fire in the library even though one is not needed.

The
fire is a symbolic object; it is conventionally associated with the contrast
between light and dark, heat and cold. It is a comfort, not merely to Benjy
because of the pleasure he receives in watching it, but because it is
associated with the hearth, the center of the home. As critics have pointed
out, it is often Caddy who places Benjy in front of the fire: "she led me
to the fire and I looked at the bright, smooth shapes" (64). The fire is
therefore tied in Benjy's mind with the idea of Caddy; both are warm and
comforting forces within a cold family. But unlike Caddy, the fire is unchanging;
there will always be a fire, even after she leaves him. The fact that Benjy
burns himself on the kitchen stove after Luster closes the oven door reveals
the pain - both physical and mental - that Benjy associates with Caddy's
absence.

Another
object that provides comfort to Benjy is the library mirror. Like the fire, the
mirror plays a large part in the memory of his name change, as Benjy watches
the various members of his family move in and out of the mirror: "Caddy
and Jason were fighting in the mirror . we could see Caddy fighting in the
mirror and Father put me down and went into the mirror and fought too . He
rolled into the corner, out of the mirror. Father brought Caddy to the fire.
They were all out of the mirror" (64-65). The mirror is a frame of reference
through which Benjy sees the world; people are either in or out of the mirror,
and he does not understand the concept of reflection. Like the mirror, Benjy's
section of the book provides readers with a similar exact reflection of the
world that Benjy sees, framed by his memories. Characters slide in and out of
the mirror of his perception, their conversations and actions accurately
reported but somewhat distorted in the process.

As
the "tale told by an idiot," Benjy's section makes up the center
kernel of the story of the Compson family tragedy. And the scene of Damuddy's
death in many ways makes up the center around which this section and the entire
story revolve. Faulkner has said that the story grew out of the image of a
little girl's muddy drawers as she climbs a tree to look into the parlor
windows at the funeral taking place. From this image a story evolved, a story
"without plot, of some children being sent away from the house during the
grandmother's funeral. There were too young to be told what was going on and
they saw things only incidentally to the childish games they were playing"
(Millgate, 96). This original story was entitled "Twilight," and the
story grew into a novel because Faulkner fell in love with the character of this
little girl to such an extent that he strove to tell her story from four
different viewpoints.

If
this one scene is the center of the story, it is also a microcosm of the events
to follow. The interactions of the children in this scene prefigure their
relations in the future and in fact the entire future of the Compson family.
Thus Caddy's soaking her dress in the water of the branch is a metaphor for the
sexual fall that will torment Quentin and ruin the family:

She
was wet. We were playing in the branch and Caddy squatted down and got her
dress wet and Versh said, "Your mommer going to whip you for getting your
dress wet."

"It's
not wet." Caddy said. She stood up in the water and looked at her dress.
"I'll take it off." she said. "Then it'll be dry."

"I
bet you won't." Quentin said.

"I
bet I will." Caddy said.

"I
bet you better not." Quentin said.

"You
just take your dress off," Quentin said. Caddy took her dress off and
threw it on the bank. Then she didn't have on anything but her bodice and
drawers, and Quentin slapped her and she slipped and fell down in the water
(17-18).

Caddy
sullies her garments in an act that prefigures her later sexuality. She then
takes off her dress, a further sexual metaphor, causing Quentin to become
enraged and slap her. Just as the loss of her virginity upsets Quentin to the
point of suicide, his angry and embarrassed reaction to taking off her dress
here reveals the jealous protectiveness he feels for her sexuality. Benjy, too,
is traumatized by the muddying of Caddy's dress: "Caddy was all wet and
muddy behind, and I started to cry and she came and squatted in the water"
(19). Just as her sexuality will cause his world to crack later on, her muddy
dress here causes him to cry.

Jason,
too, is a miniature version of what he will become in this scene. While Caddy
and Quentin fight in the branch, Jason stands "by himself further down the
branch," prefiguring the isolation from the rest of his family that will
characterize his later existence (19). Although the other children ask him not
to tell their father that they have been playing in the branch, the first thing
he does when he sees father is tattle. He is as perverse and mean here as he is
sadistic in the third section of the book. His reaction to Damuddy's death,
too, is a miniature for the way he will deal with the loss that he sees in
Caddy's betrayal of the family later on:

"You're a knobnot." Caddy said.
Jason cried. His hands were in his pockets.

"Jason going to be rich
man." Versh said. "He holding his money all the time" (35-36).

Here
Jason cries over the loss of Damuddy with his hands in his pockets,
"holding his money," just as later he will sublimate his anger at
Caddy's absence by becoming a miserly workaholic and embezzling thousands of
dollars from Quentin and his mother.

The
scene ends with the image of Caddy's muddy drawers as she climbs the tree:
"We watched the muddy bottom of her drawers. Then we couldn't see her. We
could hear the tree thrashing . . . . the tree quit thrashing. We looked up
into the still branches" (39). This image of Caddy's muddy undergarments
disappearing into the branches of the tree, the scene that prompted Faulkner to
write the entire novel, is, as critic John T. Matthews points out, an image of
Caddy disappearing, just as she will disappear from the lives of her three
brothers:

What
the novel has made, it has also lost . . . . [Caddy] is memorable precisely
because she inhabits the memories of her brothers and the novel, and memory for
Faulkner never transcends the sense of loss . . . . Caught in Faulkner's mind
as she climbs out of the book, Caddy is the figure that the novel is written to
lose (Matthews, 2-3). Thus the seminal scene in this section of the story is
that of the sullied Caddy, "climbing out of" Benjy's life.

The
scene of Damuddy's death is not the only part of this section that forecasts
the future. Like a Greek tragedy, this section is imbued with a sense of
impending disaster, and in fact the events of the present day chronicle a
family that has fallen into decay. For Benjy, the dissolution of the life he
knows is wrapped up in Caddy and her sexuality, which eventually leads her to
desert him. For his mother and the servants, the family's demise is a fate that
cannot be avoided, of which Benjy's idiocy and Quentin's death are signs. This
is what prompts Roskus to repeatedly vow that "they aint no luck on this
place," and what causes mother to perform the almost ritualistic ablution
of changing Benjy's name. It is as if changing his name from Maury, the name of
a Bascomb, will somehow avert the disastrous fate that the Compson blood seems
to bring. This overwhelming sense of an inescapable family curse will resurface
many times throughout the book.

Summary
of June Second, 1910:

This
section of the book details the events of the day of Quentin's suicide, from
the moment he wakes in the morning until he leaves his room that night, headed
to the river to drown himself. Like Benjy's section, this section is narrated
in stream of consciousness, sliding constantly between modern-day events and
memories; however, Quentin's section is not as disjointed at Benjy's,
regardless of his agitated mental state. As with Benjy, most of the memories he
relates are centered on Caddy and her precocious sexuality.

The
present day:

Quentin
wakes in his Harvard dorm room to the sound of his watch ticking: "when
the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtain it was between seven and eight
oclock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch" (76). This is the
watch his father gave him when he came to Harvard. He tries to ignore the
sound, but the more he tries, the louder it seems. He turns the watch over and
returns to bed, but the ticking goes on. His roommate Shreve appears in the
doorway and asks him if he is going to chapel, then runs out the door to avoid
being late himself. Quentin watches his friends running to chapel out the
window of his dorm room, then listens to the school's bell chiming the hour
(8:00 a.m.).

He
goes to the dresser and picks up his watch, tapping it against the side of the
dresser to break the glass. He twists the hands of the watch off, but the watch
keeps ticking. He notices that he cut himself in the process and meticulously
cleans his wound with iodine. He painstakingly packs up all his clothes except
two suits, two pairs of shoes, and two hats, then locks his trunk and piles his
schoolbooks on the sitting-room table, as the quarter-hour bell chimes.

He
bathes and puts on a new suit and his (now broken) watch, puts his trunk key
into an envelope addressed to his father, then writes two noes and seals them.
He goes out the door, bumping into his returning roommate on the way, who asks
him why he is all dressed up. The half-hour chimes and Quentin walks into
Harvard Square, to the post office. He buys stamps and mails one letter to his
father and keeps one for Shreve in his coat pocket. He is looking for his
friend "the Deacon," an eccentric black man who befriends all the
Southern students at Harvard. He goes out to breakfast; while he is eating he
hears the clock strike the hour (10:00 a.m.).

Quentin
continues to walk around the square, trying to avoid looking at clocks, but
finds it impossible to escape time like that. He eventually walks into a
jeweler's and asks him about fixing his watch. He asks if any of the watches in
the window is right, and stops the jeweler before he can tell him what time it
is. The jeweler says that he will fix his watch this afternoon, but Quentin
takes it back and says he will get it fixed later. Walking back out into the
street, he buys two six-pound flat-irons; he chooses them because they are
"heavy enough" but will look like a pair of shoes when they are wrapped
up and he is carrying them around the Square (85).

He
takes a fruitless cable car ride, then gets off the car on a bridge, where he
watches one of his friends rowing on the river. He walks back to the Square as
the bell chimes the quarter hour (11:15), and he meets up with the Deacon and
gives him the letter he has written to Shreve, asking him to deliver it
tomorrow. He tells the Deacon that when he delivers the letter tomorrow Shreve
will have a present for him. As the bell chimes the half-hour, he runs into
Shreve, who tells him a letter arrived for him this morning. Then he gets on
another car as the bells chime 11:45.

When
he gets off the car he is near a run-down town on the Charles River, and he
walks along the river until he comes across three boys fishing on a bridge over
the river; he hides the flat irons under the edge of the bridge before striking
up a conversation with the boys. They notice that he has a strange accent and
ask if he is from Canada; he asks them if there are any factories in town
(factories would have hourly whistles). He walks on toward the town, although
he is anxious to keep far enough away from the church steeple's clock to render
its face unreadable. Finally he arrives in town and walks into a bakery; there
is nobody behind the counter, but there is a little Italian immigrant girl
standing before it. A woman enters behind the counter and Quentin buys two
buns. He tells the proprietress that the little girl would like something too;
the proprietress eyes the girl suspiciously and accuses her of stealing
something.

Quentin
defends her and she extends her hand to reveal a nickel. The woman wraps up a
five-cent loaf of bread for the girl, and Quentin puts some money on the
counter and buys another bun as well. The woman asks him if he is going to give
the bun to the girl, and he says he is. Still acting exasperated, she goes into
a back room and comes out with a misshapen cake; she gives it to the girl,
telling her it won't taste any different than a good cake. The girl follows
Quentin out of the store, and he takes her to a drugstore and buys her some ice
cream. They leave the drugstore and he gives her one of the buns and says
goodbye, but she continues to follow him. Not knowing exactly what to do, he
walks with her toward the immigrant neighborhood across the train tracks where
he assumes she lives. She will not talk to him or indicate where she lives. He
asks some men in front of a store if they know her, and they do, but they don't
know where she lives either. They tell him to take her to the town marshal's
office, but when he does the marshal isn't there.

Quentin
decides to take her down to her neighborhood and hopefully someone will claim
her. At one point she seems to tell him that a certain house is hers, but the
woman inside doesn't know her. They continue to walk through the neighborhood
until they come out on the other side, by the river. Quentin gives a coin to
the girl, then runs away from her along the river. He walks along the river for
a while, then suddenly meets up with the little girl again. They walk along
together for a while, still looking for her house; eventually they turn back
and walk toward town again. They come across some boys swimming, and the boys
throw water at them. The hurry toward town, but the girl still won't tell him
where she lives.

Suddenly
a man flies at them and attacks Quentin; he is the little girl's brother. He
has the town marshal with him, and they take him into town to talk to the
police because they think he was trying to kidnap the girl. In town they meet
up with Shreve, Spoade and Gerald, Quentin's friends, who have come into town
in Gerald's mother's car. Eventually after discussing everything at length, the
marshal lets Quentin go, and he gets into the car with his friends and drives
away.

As
they drive Quentin slides into a kind of trance wherein he remembers various
events from his past, mostly to do with her precocious sexuality (to be
discussed later). While his is lost in this reverie the boys and Gerald's
mother have gotten out of the car and set up a picnic. Suddenly he comes to,
bleeding, and the boys tell him that he just suddenly began punching Gerald and
Gerald beat him up. They tell him that he began shouting "did you ever
have a sister? Did you?" then attacked Gerald out of the blue. Quentin is
more concerned about the state of his clothes than anything else. His friends
want to take the cable car back to Boston without Gerald, but Quentin tells
them he doesn't want to go back. They ask him what he plans to do (perhaps they
suspect something about his suicidal plans). They go back to the party, and
Quentin walks slowly toward the city as the twilight descends.

Eventually
Quentin gets on a cable car. Although it is dark by now, he can smell the water
of the river as they pass by it. As they pass the Harvard Square post office
again, he hears the clock chiming but has no idea what time it is. He plans to
return to the bridge where he left his flatirons, but he has to wash his
clothes first in order to carry out his plans correctly. He returns to his dorm
room and takes off his clothes, meticulously washing the blood off his vest
with gasoline. The bell chimes the half-hour as he does so. Back in his
darkened room, he looks out the window for a while, then as the last chime of
the three-quarters hour sounds, he puts his clothes and vest back on. He walks
into Shreve's room and puts a letter and his watch in the desk drawer. He
remembers that he hasn't brushed his teeth, so he goes back into his room and
takes the toothbrush out of his bag. He brushes his teeth and returns the brush
to the bag, then goes to the door. He returns for his hat, then leaves the
room.

Quentin's
memories:

Quentin's
memories are not as clearly defined or as chronologically discernible as
Benjy's. There are three important memories that obsess him.

Benjy's
name change, 1900: Dilsey claims that Benjy can "smell what you tell
him;" Roskus asks if he can smell bad luck, sure that the only reason they
changed his name is to try to help his luck.

Quentin
kisses Natalie, undated: Natalie, a neighbor girl, and Quentin are in the barn
and it is raining outside. Natalie is hurt; Caddy pushed her down the ladder
and ran off. Quentin asks her where it hurts and says that he bets he can lift
her up. [a skip in time] Natalie tells him that something [probably kissing] is
"like dancing sitting down" (135); Quentin asks her how he should
hold her to dance, placing his arms around her, and she moans. Quentin looks up
to see Caddy in the door watching them. Quentin tells her that he and Natalie
were just dancing sitting down; she ignores him.

She
and Natalie fight about the events that led to Natalie being pushed off the
ladder and whose fault it was; Caddy claims that she was "just brushing
the trash off the back of your dress" (136). Natalie leaves and Quentin
jumps into the mud of the pigpen, muddying himself up to his waist. Caddy
ignores him and stands with her back to him. He comes around in front of her
and tells her that he was just hugging Natalie. She turns her back and
continues to ignore him, saying she doesn't give a damn what he was doing.
Shouting "I'll make you give a damn," he smears mud on her dress as
she slaps him. They tumble, fighting, on the grass, then sit up and realize how
dirty they are. They head to the branch to wash the mud off themselves.

Caddy
kisses a boy (1906): Quentin slaps Caddy and demands to know why she let the
boy kiss her. With the red print of his hand rising on her cheek, she replies
that she didn't let him, she made him. Quentin tells her that it is not for
kissing that he slapped her, but for kissing a "darn town squirt"
(134). He rubs her face in the grass until she says "calf rope." She
shouts that at least she didn't kiss a "dirty girl like Natalie
anyway" (134).

Caddy
has sex with Dalton Ames, 1909: Caddy stands in the doorway, and someone
[Quentin?] asks her why she won't bring Dalton Ames into the house. Mother
replies that she "must do things for women's reasons" (92). Caddy
will not look at Quentin. Benjy bellows and pulls at her dress and she shrinks
against the wall, and he pushes her out of the room. Sitting on the porch,
Quentin hears her door slamming and Benjy still howling. She runs out of the
house and Quentin follows her; he finds her lying in the branch. He threatens
to tell Father that he committed incest with her; she replies with pity. He
tells her that he is stronger than she is, he will make her tell him. He adds
that he fooled her; all the time she thought it was her boyfriends and it was
Quentin instead. The smell of honeysuckle is all around them.

She
asks him if Benjy is still crying. He asks her if she loves Dalton Ames; she
places his hand on her chest and he feels her heart beating there. He asks her
if he made her do it, saying "Ill kill him I swear I will father neednt
know until afterward and then you and I nobody need ever know we can take my
school money we can cancel my matriculation Caddy you hate him dont you"
(151). She moves his hand to her throat, where the blood is
"hammering," and says "poor Quentin" (151). A moment later
she says "yes I hate him I would die for him Ive already died for him I
die for him over and over again" (151). She looks at him and then says
"you've never done that have you," to which Quentin responds
"yes yes lots of times with lots of girls," but he is lying, and
Caddy knows it; he cries on her shirt and they lie together in the branch
(151). He holds a knife to her throat, telling her that he can kill her quickly
and painlessly and then kill himself. She agrees and he asks her to close her
eyes, but she doesn't, looking past his head at the sky.

He
begins to cry; he cannot do it. She holds his head to her breast and he drops
the knife. She stands up and tells him that she has to go, and Quentin searches
in the water for his knife. The two walk together past the ditch where Nancy's
bones were, then she turns and tells him to stop [she is headed to meet Dalton
Ames]. He replies that he is stronger than she is; she tells him to go back to
the house. But he continues to follow her. Just past the fence, Dalton Ames is
waiting for her, and she introduces them and kisses Dalton.

Quentin
tells them that he is going to take a walk in the woods, and she asks him to
wait for her at the branch, that she will be there soon. He walks aimlessly,
trying to escape the smell of honeysuckle that chokes him, and lies on the bank
of the branch. Presently Caddy appears and tells him to go home. He shakes her;
she is limp in his hands and does not look at him. They walk together to the house,
and at the steps he asks her again if she loves Dalton Ames. She tells him that
she doesn't know. She tells him that she is "bad anyway you cant help
it" (158).

Quentin
fights with Dalton Ames, 1909: Quentin sees Dalton Ames go into a barbershop in
town and waits for him to come out. He tells him "Ive been looking for you
two or three days" and Dalton replies that he can't talk to him there on
the street; the two arrange to meet at the bridge over the creek at one o'clock
(158). Dalton is very polite to Quentin. Later, Caddy overhears Quentin telling
T. P. to saddle his horse and asks him where he is going. He will not tell her
and calls her a whore. He tells T. P. that he won't need his horse after all
and walks to the bridge. Dalton is waiting for him there. Quentin tells him to
leave town.

Dalton
stares at him and asks if Caddy sent him. Quentin tells him that he, and only
he, is asking Dalton to leave town. Dalton dismisses this, just wishing to know
if Caddy is all right. Quentin continues to order him to leave, and Dalton
counters with "what will you do if I dont leave" (160). In response
Dalton slowly and deliberately smokes a cigarette, leaning on the bridge
railing. He tells Quentin to stop taking it so hard, that if he hadn't gotten
Caddy pregnant some other guy would have. Shaking, Quentin asks him if he ever
had a sister, and he replies "no but theyre all bitches" (160).
Quentin hits him, but Dalton catches him by both wrists and reaches under his
coat for a gun, then turns him loose.

Dropping
a piece of bark into the creek, Dalton shoots at it and hands the gun to
Quentin. Quentin punches at him and he holds his wrists again, and Quentin
passes out. He asks Quentin how he feels and if he can make it home all right.
He tells him that he'd better not walk and offers him his horse. Quentin
brushes him off and eventually he rides off. Quentin slumps against a tree. He
hears hoofbeats and Caddy comes running. She thought that Dalton shot him. She
holds his face with her hands and Quentin grabs her wrists. She begs him to let
her go so she can run after Dalton, then suddenly stops struggling. Quentin
asks her if she loves him. Again she places his hand on her throat, and tells
him to say his name. Quentin says "Dalton Ames," and each time he
does he can feel the blood surging in her throat.

Quentin
meets Herbert Head before Caddy's wedding, 1910: Herbert finds Quentin alone in
the parlor and attempts to get to know him better. He is smoking a cigar and
offers one to Quentin. Herbert tells him that Caddy talked so much about him
when they met that he thought she was talking about a husband or boyfriend, not
a brother. He asks Quentin about Harvard, reminiscing about his own college
days, and Quentin accuses him of cheating [he has heard rumors about Herbert's
cheating at cards]. Herbert jokingly banters back that Quentin is "better
than a play you must have made the Dramat" (108).

He
tells Quentin that he likes him and that he is glad they are going to be
friends. He offers to give him a hand and get him started in business, but
Quentin rejects his offer and challenges him. They begin to fight but stop when
Herbert sees that his cigar butt has almost burned a spot into the mantel. He
backs off and again offers Quentin his friendship and offers him some money,
which Quentin rejects. They are just beginning to fight again when Caddy enters
and asks Herbert to leave so she can talk to Quentin alone. Alone, she asks
Quentin what he is doing and warns him not to get involved in her life again.
He notices that she is feverish, and she tells him that she is sick. He asks
her what she means and she tells him she is just sick and begs him not to tell
anyone. Again he asks her what she means and tells her that if she is sick she
shouldn't go through with the ceremony. She replies that she can and must and
that "after that it'll be all right it wont matter" and begs him to
look after Benjy and make sure that they don't send him to an asylum (112).
Quentin promises.

Caddy's
wedding, 1910: Benjy is howling outside, and Caddy runs out the door to him,
"right out of the mirror" (77).

Mother
speaks, undated: Mother tells Father that she wants to go away and take only
Jason, because he is the only child who loves her, the only child who is truly
a Bascomb, not a Compson. She says that the other three children are her
"punishment for putting aside [her] pride and marrying a man who held
himself above [her]" (104). These three are "not [her] flesh and
blood" and she is actually afraid of them, that they are the symbols of a
curse upon her and the family. She views Caddy not merely as damaging the
family name with her promiscuity but actually "corrupting" the other
children (104).

Quentin's
conversations with Father, undated (a string of separate conversations on the
same theme): Quentin tells his father that he committed incest with Caddy; his
father does not believe him. Father takes a practical, logical, if unemotional
view of Caddy's sexuality, telling Quentin that women have "a practical
fertility of suspicion . . . [and] an affinity for evil," that he should
not take her promiscuity to heart because it was inevitable (96). When Quentin
tells him that he would like to have been born a eunuch so that he never had to
think about sex, he responds "it's because you are a virgin: dont you see?
Women are never virgins. Purity is a negative state and therefore contrary to
nature. It's nature is hurting you not Caddy."

Quentin
replies "that's just words" and father counters "so is
virginity" (116). Quentin insists that he has committed incest with Caddy
and that he wants to die, but still Father won't believe him. Father tells him
that he is merely "blind to what is in yourself to that part of general
truth the sequence of natural events and their causes which shadows every mans
brow even benjys . . . you cannot bear to think that someday it will no longer
hurt you like this" (177). He claims that not even Caddy was really
"quite worth despair," that Quentin will grow out of the pain he
feels at her betrayal of his ideal (178).

Analysis
of June Second, 1910:

From
the very first sentence of the section, Quentin is obsessed with time; words
associated with time like "watch," "clock,"
"chime," and "hour" occur on almost every page. When
Quentin wakes he is "in time again, hearing the watch," and the rest
of the day represents an attempt to escape time, to get "out of time"
(76). His first action when he wakes is to break the hands off his watch in an
attempt to stop time, to escape the "reducto absurdum of all human
experience" which is the gradual progression toward death (76). Perversely
taking literally his father's statement that "time is dead as long as it
is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come
to life," he tears the hands off his watch, only to find that it continues
to tick even without the hands (85). Throughout this section, Quentin tries to
escape time in similar ways; he tries to avoid looking at clocks, he tries to
travel away from the sound of school chimes or factory whistles. By the end of
the section he has succeeded in escaping knowledge of the time (when he returns
to school he hears the bell ringing and has no idea what hour it is chiming
off), but he still has not taken himself out of time. In the end, as he knows
throughout this section, the only way to escape time is to die.

Jean-Paul
Sartre, in his analysis of this novel, sees Quentin's suicide as not merely a
way of escaping time but of exploding time. His suicide is present in all the
actions of the day, not so much a fate he could dream of escaping as "an
immobile wall, a thing which he approaches backward, and which he
neither wants to nor can conceive" (Sartre, 91). It is not a future but a
part of the present, the point from which the story is told. Quentin narrates
the day's events in the past tense, as if they have already happened; the
"present" from which he looks back at the day's events must be the
moment of his death. As Sartre puts it:

Since the hero's last thoughts
coincide approximately with the bursting of his memory and its annihilation,
who is remembering? . . . . [Faulkner] has chosen the infinitesimal instant of
death. Thus when Quentin's memory begins to unravel its recollections
("Through the wall I heard Shreve's bed-springs and then his slippers on
the floor hishing. I got up . . . ") he is already dead (92).

In
other words, time explodes at the instant of Quentin's suicide, and the events
of this "infinitesimal instant" are recorded in this section. By
killing himself, Quentin has found the only way to access time that is
"alive" in the sense that his father details, time that has escaped
the clicking of little wheels.

But
why does Quentin want to escape time? The answer lies in one of the
conversations with his father that are recorded in this section. When Quentin
claims that he committed incest with Caddy, his father refuses to believe him
and says:

You cannot bear to think that someday
it will no longer hurt you like this . . . it is hard believing to think that a
love or a sorrow is a bond purchased without design and which matures
willynilly and is recalled without warning . . . no you will not do that until
you come to believe that even she was not quite worth despair perhaps
(177-178).

Quentin's
response to this statement is "i will never do that nobody knows what i
know." His attempt to stop the progression of time is an attempt to
preserve the rawness of the pain Caddy's promiscuity and marriage have caused
him; he never wants to think of her as "not quite worth despair."

Like
Benjy, Quentin is obsessed with an absent Caddy, and both brothers' sections
are ordered around memories of her, specifically of her promiscuity. For both
brothers, her absence is linked to her promiscuity, but for Quentin her
promiscuity signals not merely her loss from his life but also the loss of the
romantically idealized idea of life he has built for himself. This ideal life
has at its center a valuation of purity and cleanness and a rejection of
sexuality; Quentin sees his own developing sexuality as well as his sister's as
sinful. The loss of her virginity is the painful center of a spiral of loss as
his illusions are shattered.

Critics
have read Quentin's obsession with Caddy's virginity as an antebellum-style
preoccupation with family honor, but in fact family honor is hardly ever
mentioned in this section. The pain that Caddy's promiscuity causes Quentin
seems too raw, too intense, too visceral to be merely a disappointment at the
staining family honor. And perhaps most importantly, Quentin's response to her
promiscuity, namely telling his father that he and she committed incest, is not
the act of a person concerned with family honor. Rather it is the act of a boy
so in love with his sister and so obsessed with maintaining the closeness of
their relationship that he would rather be condemned by the town and suffer in
hell than let her go. He is, in fact, obsessed with her purity and virginity,
but not to maintain appearances in the town; he wants her forever to remain the
unstained, saintly mother/sister he imagines her to be.

Quentin
did not, of course, commit incest with Caddy. And yet the encounters he
remembers are fraught with sexual overtones. When Caddy walks in on Quentin and
Natalie kissing in the barn, for instance, Quentin throws himself into the
"stinking" mud of the pigpen. When this fails to get a response from
Caddy, he wipes mud on her:

You
dont you dont I'll make you I'll make you give a damn. She hit my hands away I
smeared mud on her with the other hand I couldnt feel the wet smacking of her
hand I wiped mud from my legs smeared it on her wet hard turning body hearing
her fingers going into my face but I couldnt feel it even when the rain began
to taste sweet on my lips (137).

Echoing
the mud-stained drawers that symbolize her later sexuality, Quentin smears mud
on Caddy's body in a heated exchange, feeling as he does so her "wet hard
turning body." The mud is both Quentin's penance for his sexual
experimentation with Natalie and the sign of sexuality between Quentin and
Caddy.

The
scene in the branch of the river is similarly sexual in nature. Quentin finds
Caddy at the branch trying to wash away the guilt she finds; amid the
"suck[ing] and gurgl[ing]" waves of the water. When he asks her if
she loves Dalton Ames, she places his hand on her chest and he feels her heart
"thudding" (150). He smells honeysuckle "on her face and throat
like paint her blood pounded against my hand I was leaning on my other arm it
began to jerk and jump and I had to pant to get any air at all out of that
thick gray honeysuckle;" and he lies "crying against her damp
blouse" (150).

Taking
out a knife, he holds it against her throat and tells her "it wont take
but a second Ill try not to hurt." She replies "no like this you have
to push it harder," and he says "touch your hand to it" (151).
In this scene we have the repetitive surging both of the water and of Caddy's
blood beneath Quentin's hand. We have the two siblings lying on top of one
another at the edge of this surging water, the pungent smell of honeysuckle (which
Quentin associates with sex throughout the section) so thick around them that
Quentin has trouble breathing. We have a knife (a common phallic symbol) which
Quentin proposes to push into Caddy's blood-flushed neck, promising he will
"try not to hurt." Overall, the scene overflows with sexual
metaphors; if the two do not actually commit incest, they certainly do share a
number of emotionally powerful, sexually loaded moments.

Quentin's
wish to have committed incest is not a desire to have sex with Caddy; that
would shatter his ideals of purity even more than her encounters with Dalton
Ames. Nor is it, as we have determined, a way to preserve the family honor.
Instead, it seems to be a way to keep Caddy to himself forever: "if it
could just be a hell beyond that: the clean flame the two of us more than dead.
Then you will have only me then only me then the two of us amid the pointing
and the horror beyond the clean flame" (116). Separated from the rest of
the world by the "clean" purifying flames of hell, Quentin and Caddy
could be alone together, forever burning away the sin of her sexuality. He
would rather implicate himself in something as horrible as incest than leave
Caddy to her promiscuity or lose her through her marriage to Herbert Head.

If
time-words are the most frequently occurring words in this section, the second
most frequent is the word "shadow." Throughout his journeys, Quentin
is just as obsessed with his shadow as he is with time. For example, he walks
on his shadow as he wanders through Cambridge: "trampling my shadow's
bones . . . . I walked upon the belly of my shadow" (96). When asked what
the significance of shadows was in this section, Faulkner replied "that
shadow that stayed on his mind so much was foreknowledge of his own death, that
he was - Death is here, shall I step into it or shall I step away from it a
little longer? I won't escape it, but shall I accept it now or shall I put it
off until next Friday" (Minter, qtd. in Martin, 6). This explanation
certainly seems to fit some of Quentin's thoughts; for example, at one point,
he imagines drowning his shadow in the water of the river, just as he will
later drown himself: "my shadow leaning flat upon the water, so easily had
I tricked it . . . . if I only had something to blot it into the water, holding
it until it was drowned, the shadow of the package like two shoes wrapped up
lying on the water.

Niggers
say a drowned man's shadow was watching for him in the water all the time"
(90). Here Quentin imagines his drowned shadow beckoning him from the river,
drowned before him and waiting for him to follow suit.

Like
his shadow mirroring his motions and emotions, certain aspects of his day's
travels mirror his life and the troubled state of his mind. Most obvious among
these is his encounter with the Italian girl he calls "sister" and
the reaction of her brother Julio. Calling this little girl "little
sister" or "sister" ironically recalls Caddy, whom Quentin at
one point calls "Little Sister Death." But whereas his suicidal
mission is caused by the fact that he cannot hold on to Caddy, here he cannot
get rid of this "little sister," who follows him around the town and
will not leave him. Then when Julio finds them, he accuses Quentin stealing
her, just as Quentin feels Dalton Ames and Herbert Head have stolen Caddy from
him.

Julio
is not the only character to mirror Quentin, though. As Edmond Volpe points
out, Dalton Ames himself is a foil for Quentin, the embodiment of the romantic
ideal he has cast for himself:

Quentin's
meeting with Dalton is a disaster. His conception of himself in the traditional
role of protector of women collapses, not only because he fails to accomplish
his purpose [of beating Dalton up] but because he is forced to recognize his
own weakness. Dalton is actually a reflection of Quentin's vision of himself:
calm, courageous, strong, kind. The real Quentin does not measure up to the
ideal Quentin, just as reality does not measure up to Quentin's romantic vision
of what life should be (113).

Quentin
is in actuality the "obverse reflection" of himself, a man who does
not live up to his own ideals, who fails to protect his sister from a villain
who turns out to be as chivalrous and Quentin is weak.

Thus
at the "infinitesimal instant" of his death, Quentin is a man whose disillusionment
with his shattered ideals consumes him. His death, one of the "signs"
Roskus sees of the bad luck of the Compson family, is one step in the gradual
dissolution of the family, a degeneration that will pick up speed in the
sections to come.

Summary
of April Sixth, 1928:

Beginning
with the statement "once a bitch always a bitch," this section reads
as if Jason is telling the reader the story of his day; it is more
chronological and less choppy than Quentin's or Benjy's sections, but still
unconventional in tone. Jason and his mother in her room waiting for Quentin to
finish putting on her makeup and go down to breakfast. Mother is concerned that
Quentin often skips school and asks Jason to take care of it. Both Jason and
his mother are manipulative and passive-aggressive, mother complaining about
the ailments she suffers and the way her children betrayed her, Jason
countering with statements like "I never had time to go to Harvard or
drink myself into the ground. I had to work. But of course if you want me to
follow her around and see what she does, I can quit the store and get a job
where I can work at night" (181). Jason goes down to the kitchen, where
Quentin is begging Dilsey for another cup of coffee. Dilsey tells her she will
be late for school, and Jason says he will fix that, grabbing her by the arm.

Her
bathrobe comes unfastened and she pulls it closed around her. He begins to take
off his belt, but Dilsey stops him from hitting her. Mother comes in, and Jason
puts down the belt. Quentin runs out of the house. In the car on the way to
town, Quentin and Jason fight about who paid for her schoolbooks - Caddy or
Jason. Jason claims that Mother has been burning all of the checks Caddy sends.
Quentin tells Jason that she would tear off any dress that he paid for and
grabs the neck of her dress as if she will tear it. Jason has to stop the car
and grab her wrists to stop her. He tells her that she is a slut and a bad
girl, and she replies that she would rather be in hell than in his house. He drops
her off at school and drives on to his job at the farm goods store.

At
the store, old Job, a black worker, is unloading cultivators, and Jason accuses
of him of doing it as slowly as he possibly can. He has mail; he opens a letter
with a check from Caddy. The letter asks if Quentin is sick and states that she
knows that Jason reads all her letters. He goes out to the front of the store
and engages in a conversation with a farmer about the cotton crop. He tells him
that cotton is a "speculator's crop" that "a bunch of damn
eastern jews" get farmers to grow so that they can control the stock
market (191). He goes to the telegraph office, where a stock report has just
come in (Jason has invested in the cotton crop) - the cotton stock is up four points.
He tells the telegraph operator to send a collect message to Caddy saying
"Q writing today" (193).

He
goes back to the store and sits at his desk, reading a letter from his
girlfriend Lorraine, who is basically a prostitute he keeps in Memphis. She
calls Jason her "daddy." He burns her letter, commenting "I make
it a rule never to keep a scrap of paper bearing a woman's hand, and I never
write them at all" (193). Then he takes out Caddy's letter to Quentin, but
before he can open it some business interrupts him. He recalls the day of his
father's funeral; he remembers saying that Quentin wasted his chance at
Harvard, learning only "how to go for a swim at night without knowing how
to swim," Benjy is nothing but a "gelding" that should be rented
out as a circus sideshow, Father was a drunk who should have had a
"one-armed strait jacket," and Caddy is a whore (196-197).

Uncle
Maury patted Mother's arm with expensive black gloves at the funeral, and Jason
noted that the flowers on the grave must have cost fifty dollars. He also
remembers the day that Father brought baby Quentin home; Mother would not let
her sleep in Caddy's old room, afraid she will be contaminated by the
atmosphere in there. She also declares that nobody in the house must ever say
Caddy's name again. On the day of the funeral, Caddy appeared in the cemetery
and begged Jason to let her see the baby for just one minute, and she would pay
him fifty dollars; later she changes this to one hundred dollars. Jason smugly
remembers how he took the baby in a carriage and held her up to the window as
he drove past Caddy; this fulfilled his agreement to the letter. Later she
showed up in the kitchen, accusing him of backing out of their agreement. He
threatened her and told her to leave town immediately. She made him promise to
treat Quentin well and to give her the money that she sends for her.

Jason's
boss, Earl, comes up to the front of the store and tells Jason he is going out
for a snack because they won't have time to go home for lunch; a show is in
town and there will be too much business. Jason finally opens Caddy's letter to
Quentin, and inside is a money order for fifty dollars, not a check. He looks
around in the office for a blank check; every month he takes a fake check home
to mother to burn and cashes the real check. But the blank checks are all gone.
Quentin comes in and asks if a letter has come for her. He taunts her, then
finally gives her the letter, without the money in it. She reaches out for the
money order, but he will not give it to her. He tells her she has to sign it
without looking at it. She asks how much it is for, and he tells her it is for
ten dollars. She says he is lying, but he will not give it to her until she
agrees to take ten dollars for it. She takes the money and leaves, upset.

Earl
returns and again tells Jason not to go home to lunch; Jason agrees and leaves.
First he goes to a print shop to get a blank check. The print shop doesn't have
any, and finally Jason finds a checkbook that was a prop at an old theater. He
goes back to the store and puts the check in the letter, gluing the envelope
back to look unopened. As he leaves again, Earl tells him not to take too much
time. He goes to the telegraph office and checks up on the stock market, then
goes home for lunch. He goes up to Mother's room and gives her the doctored
letter. Instead of burning it right away she looks at it for a while. She
notices that it is drawn on a different bank than the others have been, but
then burns it. Dilsey is not ready with lunch yet because she is waiting for
Quentin to come home; finally she puts it on the table and they eat. Jason
hands Mother a letter from Uncle Maury; it is a letter asking her to lend him
some money for an investment he would like to make.

Jason
takes Mother's bankbook with him and returns to town. He goes to the bank and
deposits the money from Caddy and his paycheck, then returns to the telegraph
office for an update; the stock is down thirteen points. He goes back to the
store, where Earl asks him if he went home to dinner. Jason tells him that he
had to go to the dentist's. A while later he hears the band from the show start
playing. He argues with Job about spending money to go to a show like that.
Suddenly he sees Quentin in an alley with a stranger with a red bow tie. It is
still 45 minutes before school should let out. He follows them up the street,
but they disappear. A boy comes up and gives Jason a telegram: the market day
closed with cotton stocks down. He goes back to the store and tells Earl that
he has to go out for a while.

He
gets in his car and goes home. Gasoline gives him headaches, and he thinks
about having to bring some camphor with him when he goes back to the store. He
goes into his room and hides the money from Caddy in a strongbox in his room.
Mother tells him to take some aspirin, but he doesn't. He gets back in his car
and is almost to town when he passes a Ford driven by a man with a red bow tie.
He looks closer and sees Quentin inside. He chases the Ford through the
countryside, his headache growing by the second. Finally he sees the Ford
parked near a field and gets out to look for them; he is sure they are hiding
in the bushes somewhere having sex. The sun slants directly into his eyes, and
his headache is pounding so hard he can't think straight. He reaches the place
where he thinks they are, then hears a car start up behind him and drive off,
the horn honking. He returns to his own car and sees that they have let the air
out of one of his tires. He has to walk to the nearest farm to borrow a pump to
blow it back up.

He
returns to town, stopping in a drugstore to get a shot for his headache and the
telegraph office; he has lost $200 on the stock market. Then he goes back to
the store. A telegram has arrived from his stockbroker, advising him to sell.
Instead he writes back to the broker, telling him he will buy. The store
closes, and he drives home to the sounds of the band playing. At home, Quentin
and Mother are fighting upstairs, and Luster asks him for a quarter to go to
the show. Jason replies that he has two tickets already that he won't be using.
Luster begs him for one, but he tells him he will only sell it to him for a
nickel. Luster replies that he has no money, and Jason burns the tickets in the
fireplace. Dilsey puts supper on the table for him and tells him that Quentin
and Mother won't be coming to dinner.

Jason
insists that they come unless they are actually sick. They come down. At
dinner, he offers Quentin an extra piece of meat and tells her and Mother that
he lent his car to a stranger who needed to chase around one of his relatives
who was running around with a town woman. Quentin looks guilty. Finally she
stands up and says that if she is bad, it is only because Jason made her bad.
She runs off and slams the door. Mother comments that she got all of Caddy's
bad traits and all of Quentin's too; Jason takes this to mean that Mother
thinks Quentin is the child of Caddy and her brother's incestuous relationship.
They finish dinner, and Mother locks Quentin into her room for the night. Jason
retires to his room for the night, still ruminating on the "dam New York
jew" that is taking all of his money (263).

Analysis
of April Sixth, 1928:

Jason's
section appears more readable and more conventional; its style, while still
stream-of-consciousness, is more chronological in progression, with very few
jumps in time. It reads more like a monologue than a string of loosely
connected events, like Benjy's and Quentin's sections were. Critics have
claimed that the book progresses from chaos to order, from timelessness to
chronology, from pure sensation to logical order, and from interiority to
exteriority as it travels from Benjy's world of bright shapes and confused time
through Jason's rigorously ordered universe to the third-person narrative of
the fourth section. This third section represents a shift into the public world
from the anguished interiority of Benjy and Quentin, and a shift into
"normal" novelistic narrative as Jason recounts the story of the
events of the day.

The
first sentence of each section reveals a lot about the tone and themes of that
particular part; this is especially true with Quentin's and Jason's section. In
Quentin's section, the first sentence draws the reader into his obsession with
being caught "in time" and includes two of the most common symbols in
the section: time and shadows. Jason's section begins "once a bitch always
a bitch, what I say," introducing both Jason's irrational anger not only
toward his sister and her daughter, but toward the world in general, and also
the rigorous logic that runs through this section (180). Jason's world is
dominated by logic. Once a bitch, always a bitch; like mother, like daughter.
Caddy was a whore, so is her daughter. He is furious at Caddy for ruining his
chances at getting a job, and the way she ruined his chances was to bear an
illegitimate daughter; therefore the way he will get revenge on her and simultaneously
recoup the money he lost is through this same daughter. Caddy should have
gotten him a job, but instead she had Quentin; therefore it is his right to
embezzle the money she sends to Quentin in order to make up for the money he
lost when he lost the job.

Jason's
logic takes the form of literalism. Caddy is responsible for getting him money,
no matter where it comes from. She sends money each month for Quentin's upkeep;
he keeps Quentin clothed, housed and fed, so the money should go to him. He
himself claims that he "make[s] it a rule never to keep a scrap of paper
bearing a woman's hand," and yet he keeps the money from the checks Caddy
sends him; this act fits into his system of logic because he cashes the checks,
literally getting rid of her handwriting while keeping the money. He allows his
mother to literally burn the checks she sends, but only after he has cashed
them in secret. When Caddy gives him 100 dollars to "see [Quentin] a
minute" he grants her request to the letter, holding the baby up to the
carriage window as he drives by, literally allowing Caddy only a minute's
glimpse (203-205). When Luster can't pay him a nickel for tickets to the show,
he burns the tickets rather than give then to him (255). All of these acts fit
into a rigid and literally defined logical order with which Jason structures
his life.

Some
readers see Jason's logic as a sign that he is more "sane" than the
rest of his family. He is not retarded like Benjy or irrationally distraught
like Quentin. He is able to live his life in a relatively normal way, with a
logical order to both his narrative and his daily activities. However, Jason is
just as blind, just as divorced from reality as his brothers. Like them, he
tries to control his life through a strictly defined order, and when this is
disrupted he collapses into irrationality. Benjy's system of order is the
routine of everyday life, disrupted on a grand scale when Caddy leaves and on a
small scale when Luster turns the horses the wrong way or changes the
arrangement of his "graveyard."

Quentin's
system of order is the honor and purity he saw in himself and Caddy when they
were young, disrupted when Caddy loses her virginity and leaves him. Jason's
system of order is the rigidity of his logic, most of which has to do with
money, and with this he tries to control the world around him. This system is
disrupted when he loses his job opportunity (Quentin gets a career boost in
going to Harvard, so should Jason get a career boost from Herbert Head), and
again when Quentin refuses to come to dinner, skips school, or runs away with
his money. For each brother, the systems he has established help to control
everyday life, and the way they do so is by controlling Caddy. As long as she
is motherly to Benjy, virginal to Quentin, and profftable to Jason, their
worlds are in order. But these controlling mechanisms are inflexible, breaking
down entirely as soon as Caddy or her daughter defies them.

Each
brother remains irrationally connected with the past, particularly with
memories of Caddy. Benjy relives his memories of Caddy all the time, making no
distinction between the present and the past. Quentin goes through the routines
of life washed in a sea of memories of Caddy. And Jason, for all he seems to
have cut himself off from her entirely by refusing to mention her name, is
perhaps the closest of all to her. Not only is he surrounded by reminders of
her in the shape of her daughter and her money, but he is also constantly
reminded of her in his anger. It has been eighteen years since she lost him his
job opportunity, and yet he remains as angry with her as he ever was. Certainly
this is no way to forget her, nor is it any more "sane" than his
brothers.

Nor
is Jason even a particularly good businessman, for all he obsesses about money.
In the course of this one day he loses $200 in the stock market, for example;
he has been warned that the market is in a state of flux and yet he leaves town
on a wild goose chase when he should be watching the market and deliberately
defies his broker's advice by buying when he should sell. He is rude and
spiteful to his boss, which is certainly not the best way to succeed in
business. He buys a car even though he knows that gasoline gives him headaches.
And perhaps the clearest indication of his bad business sense is the fact that
when Quentin steals his savings in the fourth section, she steals $7000. This
is the money that he has been embezzling from Caddy and Quentin, and Caddy has
been sending him $200 a month for fifteen years. By this point he should have
amassed upwards of $30,000; where did it all go? Even though he thinks of
little else besides money, he is not capable of handling it properly.

Mrs.
Compson spends much of the novel telling Jason that he is different from
Quentin and Benjy, that he is a Bascomb at heart. And yet, underneath the
sadism, money-grubbing and isolation, Jason is surprisingly similar to his
brothers. He is just as obsessed with Caddy as they are, and her sexuality
shatters his world just as much as theirs.

Summary
of April Eighth, 1928:

The
section opens with Dilsey standing on the stoop of her house in her church
clothes, then going back inside to change into her work clothes. It is raining
and gray outside. Dilsey goes into the kitchen and brings some firewood with
her; she can barely walk. She begins to make breakfast and Mrs. Compson calls
her from upstairs; she wants her to fill her hot water bottle. Dilsey struggles
up the stairs to get the hot water bottle, saying that Luster has overslept
after the night's reveries. She goes outside and calls Luster; he appears from
the cellar looking guilty and she tells him to get some firewood and take care
of Benjy. He brings in a huge armful of firewood and leaves. A while later,
Mrs. Compson calls her again, and she goes out to the stairs. Mrs. Compson
wants to know when Luster will be up to take care of Benjy.

Dilsey
begins to slowly climb the stairs again, while Mrs. Compson inquires whether
she had better go down and make breakfast herself. When Dilsey is halfway up
the stairs, Mrs. Compson reveals that Benjy is not even awake yet, and Dilsey
clambers back down. Luster emerges from the cellar again. She makes him get
another armful of wood and go up to tend Benjy. The clock strikes five times,
and Dilsey says "eight o'clock" (274). Luster appears with Benjy, who
is described as big and pale, with white-blonde hair cut in a child's haircut
and pale blue eyes. She sends Luster up to see if Jason is awake yet; Luster
reports that he is up and angry already because one of the windows in his room
is broken. He accuses Luster of breaking it, but Luster swears he didn't.

Jason
and Mrs. Compson come to the table for breakfast. Although Mrs. Compson usually
allows Quentin to sleep in on Sundays, Jason insists that she come and eat with
them now. Dilsey goes upstairs to wake her. Mrs. Compson tells him that the
black servants are all taking the afternoon off to go to church; the family
will have to have a cold lunch. Upstairs Dilsey calls to Quentin, but receives
no answer. Suddenly, Jason springs up and mounts the stairs, shouting for
Quentin. There is still no response and he comes back down to snatch the key to
her room from his mother. He fumbles at the lock and then finally opens the
door. The room is empty. Jason runs to his own room and begins throwing things
out of the closet. Mrs. Compson looks around Quentin's note for a suicide note,
convinced that history is repeating itself. In his room, Jason finds that his
strongbox has been broken into. He runs to the phone and calls the sheriff,
telling him that he has been robbed, and that he expects the sheriff to get
together a posse of men to help him search for Quentin. He storms out.

Luster
comments that he bets Jason beat Quentin and now he is going for the doctor.
Dilsey tells him to take Benjy outside. Luster tells her that he and Benjy saw
Quentin climb out her window and down the pear tree last night. Dilsey goes
back to her cabin and changes into her church clothes again. She calls for
Luster and finds him trying to play a saw like one of the players did at the
show last night. She tells him to get his cap and to come with her; they meet up
with Frony and head to church, Benjy in tow. Dilsey carries herself with pride
among the other blacks, and some of the children dare each other to touch
Benjy. They take their seats as the mass starts.

The
sermon will be delivered by a visiting preacher, Reverend Shegog. The preachers
process in, and Reverend Shegog is so slight and nondescript as to attract no
attention. But when he speaks, he holds their attention. First he speaks
without accent "like a white man," describing the "recollection
and the blood of the Lamb," then when this doesn't have much of an effect,
he modulates into black dialect and delivers the same sermon again, describing
the major events of Jesus' life and his resurrection. When he finishes, Benjy
is rapt with attention and Dilsey is quietly weeping. As the leave the church,
she states "I've seed de first en de last . . . . I seed de beginning, en
now I sees de endin" (297).

They
return to the house. Dilsey goes up to Mrs. Compson's room and checks on her;
Mrs. Compson, still convinced that Quentin has killed herself, asks Dilsey to
pick up the Bible that has fallen off the bed. Dilsey goes back downstairs and
prepares lunch for the family, commenting that Jason will not be joining them.

Meanwhile,
Jason is in his car driving to the sheriff's. When he gets there, nobody is
prepared to leave as Jason requested. He enters the station, and the sheriff
tells him that he will not help him find Quentin, because it was her own money
she stole and because Jason drove her away. Jason drives away toward Mottson,
the town where the traveling show will be next. He begins to get a headache and
remembers that he has forgotten to bring any camphor with him. By the time he
gets to Mottson he cannot see very well; he finds two Pullman cars that belong
to the show and he enters one. Inside is an old man, and he asks him where
Quentin and her boyfriend are. The man becomes angry and threatens him with a
knife.

Jason
hits him on the head and he slumps to the floor. He runs from the car, and the
old man comes out of the car with a hatchet in his hand. They struggle, and
Jason falls to the ground. Some show people haul him to his feet and push him
away. One of the men tells him that Quentin and her boyfriend aren't there,
that they have left town. Jason goes back to his car and sits down, but he
can't see to drive. He calls to some passing boys, asking if they will drive
him back to Jackson for two dollars; they refuse. He sits a while longer in the
car. A black man in overalls comes up to him and says that he will drive him
for four dollars, but Jason refuses, then eventually acquiesces.

Back
at the house, Luster takes Benjy out to his "graveyard," which
consists of two blue glass bottles with jimson weeds sticking out of them.
Luster hides one of the bottles behind his back, and Benjy starts to howl;
Luster puts it back. He takes Benjy by the golf course and they watch the men
playing. When one of them yells "caddie," Benjy begins to cry again.
Frustrated, Luster repeats Caddy's name over and over, making him cry even
louder. Dilsey calls them and they go to her cabin. Dilsey rocks Benjy and
strokes his hair, telling Luster to go get his favorite slipper. When he begins
to cry again, Dilsey asks Luster where T. P. is (T. P. is supposed to take
Benjy to the graveyard as he does every Sunday). Luster tells her that he can
drive the surrey instead of T. P., and she makes him promise to be good. They
put Benjy into the surrey and hand him a flower to hold, and Luster climbs into
the driver's seat.

Dilsey
takes the switch away from him and tells him that the horse knows the way. As
soon as they are out of sight of the house, Luster stops the horse and picks a
switch from the bushes along the road, then climbs back into the driver's seat,
carrying himself like royalty. They approach the square and pass Jason in his
car by the side of the road. Luster, carried away in his pride, turns the horse
to the left of the statue in the square instead of to the right, breaking the
pattern that Benjy is used to. Benjy begins to howl. As his voice gets louder
and louder, Jason comes running and turns the horse around. When the objects
they pass begin to go in the right direction again, Benjy hushes.

Analysis
of April Eighth, 1928:

Readers
commonly refer to this section of the novel as "Dilsey's section,"
although it is narrated in the third person. Dilsey plays a prominent role in
this section, and even if she does not narrate this section, she serves a sort
of moral lens through which to view the other characters in the section and, in
fact, in the novel as a whole. The section contrasts Dilsey's slow, patient
progress through the day with Jason's irrational pursuit of Quentin and Mrs.
Compson's self-centered flightiness. As we watch Dilsey slowly climb up the
stairs as Mrs. Compson watches to tend to Benjy, only to discover halfway up
that he isn't even awake yet, we begin to sympathize with this wizened old
woman. As we see her tenderly wiping Benjy's mouth as he eats, we come to see
her as the only truly good person in the book. Even Caddy, the object of Benjy
and Quentin's obsessions, was not as selflessly kind or as reliable as Dilsey.
Throughout the course of the section, she is witness to any number of the
Compson family's flaws, yet she never judges them.

The
only statement she makes that resembles a judgement is her concern that Luster
has inherited the "Compson devilment." Instead she stands calmly in
the midst of the chaos of the disintegrating household, patiently bearing what
she is dealt "like cows do in the rain" (272). Unlike any of the
Compson family, Dilsey is capable of extending outside herself and her own
needs. Each of the brothers is selfish in his own way; Benjy because he cannot
take care of himself and relies on her to, Quentin because he is too wrapped up
in his ideals, Jason because of his greed and anger. Mrs. Compson is even
worse, passive-aggressively manipulating the members of the family as she lies
in her sickbed. And Miss Quentin is too troubled and lonely to sympathize with
anyone else. Dilsey, however, in her kindness, ungrudgingly takes care of each
family member with tenderness and respect.

In
her selflessness, Dilsey conforms to the Christian ideal of goodness in
self-sacrifice; therefore it is not surprising that the section takes place on
Easter Sunday. This section of the novel resounds with biblical allusions and
symbols and revolves around the sermon delivered by Reverend Shegog at Dilsey's
church. The sermon profoundly affects Dilsey, who leaves the church in tears.
Perhaps this is because the sermon seems to describe perfectly the
disintegrating Compson family. Benjamin is the youngest son described as being
"sold into Egypt" in the Appendix to the novel; here Shegog lectures
on the Israelites who "passed away in Egypt" (295). Matthews notes
that Jason is a "wealthy pauper" (11), fitting Shegog's description:
"wus a rich man: whar he now, O breddren? Wus a po man: whar he now, O
sistuhn?" (295). He has embezzled thousands of dollars from his sister,
yet he lives like a poor man. Even Mrs. Compson, Matthews claims, is described
in Shegog's sermon: "I hears de weepin en de lamentation of de po mammy
widout de salvation en de word of God" (296). Matthews even suggests that
Quentin is implied in the voice of one congregation member that rises "like
bubbles rising in water" (11).

Much
has been made of the religious symbolism in this chapter. Aside from Shegog's
sermon there is Benjy's age: he is 33 years old, the age Christ was when he
died. Like Christ, or like a priest, he is celibate. And he seems to be one of
the only "pure" members of the family, incapable of doing anything
evil merely because of his handicaps. But he is not the only Christlike member
of the family. Quentin, the daughter of the woman whose brother wanted to remember
her as both virginal and motherly, has an unknown father, just as Christ, the
son of the Virgin Mary, had no earthly father.

Like
Christ, Quentin suffers a misunderstood and mistreated existence. But most
compelling is the fact of her disappearance on Easter Sunday. Just as the
disciples found Christ's tomb empty, the wrappings from his body discarded on
the floor, Jason opens Quentin's room to find it empty: "the bed had not
been disturbed. On the floor lay a soiled undergarment of cheap silk a little
too pink, from a half open bureau drawer dangled a silk stocking" (282).
If Quentin is a Christ figure, however, she seems to have a very un-Christlike
effect on her family. Whereas the pure and virginal Christ's disappearance
signaled the end of death and the beginning of new life in heaven, the
promiscuous Quentin's disappearance signals the destruction of her family.

Other
elements of the section seem more apocalyptic: there is Shegog's name, for
instance, which sounds much like the Gog and Magog mentioned in the Book of
Revelation. There is the story's preoccupation with the end of the Compson
family: Jason is the last of the Compsons, and he is childless, his house
literally rotting away. And finally there is Dilsey's comment that she has seen
the first and the last, the beginning and the end: although the meaning of this
statement is unclear, she seems to be discussing the end of the Compson family
as well as her life, and perhaps the end of the world. Dilsey has borne witness
to the alpha and the omega of the Compson family.

Nevertheless,
none of this religious symbolism is particularly well-developed. It is
impossible to tell who, if anyone, is the Christ figure in this Easter story.
It is impossible to know what will happen to Quentin, or if the family will really
dissolve as Dilsey seems to think it will. Nor is it particularly clear why
Reverend Shegog's sermon has such an effect on Dilsey or what his actual
message is; he has seen the recollection and the blood of the Lamb, but why is
this important? What should the congregation do about it? What can they do in
order to see this themselves?

The
problem with this last section is that it doesn't satisfactorily bring the
story of the Compson family to a close. The reader is left with a glimpse of
the family's psychology and slow demise, but no real answers, no redemption. We
don't know what will happen to the family or its servants: will Jason send
Benjy to Jackson? Will Dilsey die? Will Quentin get away? John Matthews has
pointed out that the story doesn't really end but keeps repeating itself.

This is partially due to its nature as
a stream-of-consciousness narrative; none of the three brothers' sections is
purely chronological, therefore when the story ends their memories continue on.
Matthews claims that the fourth section does not "[complete] the shape of
the fiction's form" or "retrospectively order" the rest of the
book; in fact it does not have much to do with the first two sections at all
(9). The Compson clock ticks away toward the family's imminent demise, but it
chimes the wrong hours, mangling the metaphor. Reverend Shegog's sermon does
not have the intended effect, so he modifies it and tells it again: it
"succeeds because it is willing to say, and then say again" (12). The
story doesn't end; its loose ends are not tied together. Instead it constantly
repeats. Faulkner himself said that the novel grew because he wrote the story
of Caddy once (Benjy's section), and that didn't work, so he wrote it again
(Quentin's section), but that wasn't enough either, so he wrote it again
(Jason's section), and finally wrote it again (Dilsey's section), and even this
wasn't good enough. The story of Caddy and the Compsons does not end, but
repeats itself eternally in its characters' memories.

Tennessee
Williams
was born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi, in 1911. Much of his
childhood was spent in St. Louis. The nickname Tennessee' seems to have been
pinned on him in college, in reference to is father's birthplace or his own
deep Southern accent, or maybe both.Descended from an old and prominent Tennessee
family, Williams's fatherworked at a shoe company and was often away from home.
Williams lived

with
mother, his sister Rose (who would suffer from mental illness and later undergo
a lobotomy), and his maternal grandparents.

At
sixteen, Williams won $5 in a national competition for his essay, "Can a
Wife be a Good Sport?," published in Smart Set. The next year he published
his first story in Weird Tales. Soon after, he entered the University of Missouri,
where he wrote his first play. He withdrew from the university before receiving
his degree, and went to work at his father's shoe company.

After
entering and dropping out of Washington University, Williams graduated from the
University of Iowa in 1938. He continued to work on drama, receiving a
Rockefeller grant and studying play writing at The New School in Manhattan.
During the early years of World War Two, Williams worked in Hollywood as a
scriptwriter.

In
1944, The Glass Menagerie opened in New York, won the prestigious New York
Critics' Circle Award, and catapulted Williams into the upper echelon of
American playwrights. Two years later, A Streetcar Named Desire cemented his
reputation, garnering another Critics' Circle and adding a Pulitzer Prize. He
would win another Critics' Circle and Pulitzer for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in
1955.

Tennessee
Williams mined his own life for much of the pathos in his drama. His most
memorable characters (many of them complex females, such as Blanche DuBois)
contain recognizable elements of their author or people close to him.
Alcoholism, depression, thwarted desire, loneliness in search of purpose, and
insanity were all part of Williams's world. Certainly his experience as a known
homosexual in an era and culture unfriendly to homosexuality informed his work.
His setting was the South, yet his themes were universal and compellingly
enough rendered to win him an international audience and worldwide acclaim. In
later life, as most critics agree, the quality of his work diminished. He
sufiered a long period of depression after the death of his longtime partner in
1963. Yet his writing career was long and prolific: twenty-five full-length
plays, five screenplays, over seventy one act plays, hundreds of short stories,
two novels, poetry, and a memoir. Five of his plays were made into movies.

Williams
died of choking in an alcohol-related incident in 1983.

Characters

Blanche { Stella's older sister, until recently a high school
English teacher in Laurel, Mississippi. She arrives in New Orleans a
loquacious, witty, arrogant, fragile, and ultimately crumbling figure. Blanche
once was married to and passionately in love with a tortured young man. He
killed himself after she discovered his homosexuality, and she has sufiered
from guilt and regret ever since. Blanche watched parents and relatives{all the
old guard{die off, and then had to endure foreclosure on the family estate.
Cracking under the strain, or perhaps yielding to urges so long suppressed that
they now cannot be contained, Blanche engages in a series of sexual escapades
that trigger an expulsion from her community. In New Orleans she puts on the
airs of a woman who has never known indignity, but Stanley sees through her.
Her past catches up with her and destroys her relationship with Mitch. Stanley,
as she fears he might, destroys what's left of her. At the end of the play she
is led away to an insane asylum.

Stella Kowalski { Blanche's younger sister, with the
same timeworn aristocratic heritage, but who has jumped the sinking ship and
linked her life with lower-class vitality. Her union with Stanley is animal and
spiritual, violent but renewing. She cannot really explain it to Blanche. While
she loves her older sister, and pities her, she cannot bring herself to believe
Blanche's accusation against Stanley. Though it is agony, she has her sister
committed.

Stanley Kowalski { Stanley is the epitome of vital
force. He is a man in the ush of life, a lover of women, a worker, a fighter,
new blood{a chief male of the ock, with his tail feathers fanned and brilliant.
He is loyal to his friends, passionate to his wife, and heartlessly cruel to
Blanche.

Mitch { An army buddy, coworker, and poker buddy of Stanley.
He is the sensitive member of that crowd, perhaps because he lives with his
slowly-dying mother. Mitch and Blanche are both people in need of companionship
and support. Though Mitch is of Stanley's world, and Blanche is off in her own
world, the two believe they have found an acceptable companion in the other.
Mitch woos Blanche over the course of the summer until Stanley reveals secrets
about Blanche's past.

A Negro Woman { Two brief appearances. She is
sitting on the steps talking to Eunice when Blanche arrives. Later, in the
'real-world-struggle-for-existence' sequence, she ri es through a prostitute's
abandoned handbag.

A Doctor { Comes to the door at the play's finale to whisk
Blanche off to an asylum. After losing a struggle with the nurse, Blanche
willingly goes with the kindly-seeming doctor.

A Nurse { Comes with the doctor to collect Blanche and bring her
to an institution. A matronly, unfeminine figure with a talent for subduing
hysterical patients.

A Young Collector { A young man (seventeen, perhaps),
who comes to the door to collect for the newspaper. Blanche lusts after him but
constrains herself to irtation and a passionate farewell kiss. The boy leaves
bewildered.

A Mexican woman { A vendor of Mexican funeral
decorations who frightens Blanche by issuing the plaintive call: Flores para
los muertos. The Mexican woman later reprises this role in the underrated comedy
Quick Change (1990), starring Bill Murray and Geena Davis.

Summary

Stanley
and Stella Kowalski live on a street called Elysian Fields in a run-down but
charming section of New Orleans. They are newly married and desperately in
love. One day Stella's older sister, Blanche DuBois, arrives to stay with them,
setting up the drama's central con ict: an emotional tug-of-war between the
raw, brute sensuality of Stanley and the fragile, crumbling gentility of
Blanche. Truth be told, it is not an even match, for Blanche is already sliding
down a slippery slope. Blanche and Stella are the last in a line of landed
Southern gentry. Stella has renounced the worn dictates of class propriety to
follow her heart and marry an uncultured blue-collar worker of Polish extraction.
Meanwhile, Blanche has played nursemaid to the old guard on its deathbed and
watched the family estate slip through her fingers into foreclosure. Her
professed values are those of an older South, of charm and wit and chivalry,
gaiety and light, appearance and code.

Blanche
claims she has been given a leave of absence from her high school teaching job
to recover from a nervous breakdown. She settles in with the Kowalskis but
things do not go smoothly. Her disapproval of Stanley and the station in life
her sister Stella has chosen is obvious, though she strives to be polite. Her
feelings against Stanley are galvanized when she witnesses him strike Stella in
a fit of drunken rage. Stanley's feelings for her are similarly hardened when
he overhears her describe him as animal-like, neolithic, and brutish. Blanche's
imposition, her airs, and her distortions of reality infuriate Stanley. He
begins to chip away at her thin veneer of armor.

Of
Stella's and Stanley's friends, one seems to stand above the rest in
sensitivity and grace. This is Mitch, who works at the same factory as Stanley,
and lives with his sick mother. He has no refinement, but his native gentleness
and sincerity inspire Blanche to return his afiection. The two seem to need
each other They see a great deal of one another as the summer wears on, but
Blanche places strict limits on their intimacy. She has old-fashioned ideals
and morals, she tells him. Meanwhile, Stella's first pregnancy progresses and
Stanley continues his subtle campaign of intimidation against Blanche.

Blanche's
past catches up with her. When she was younger, she fell in love with and
married a man whom she later caught in bed with another man. When she
confronted him, he killed himself for shame. This knocked the foundations out
from under her, and the subsequent poverty and emotional hardships were too
much for her. She sought solace or oblivion in the intimacy of strangers;
apparently many intimacies with many strangers, and a disastrous afiair with a
seventeen- year-old student at her high school.

Blanche
departed Mississippi in disgrace and arrived in New Orleans with nowhere else
to go. Stanley discovers this sordid account. He tells Mitch and efiectively
ends the budding relationship. For Blanche's birthday, Stanley presents her
with a one-way bus ticket back to Mississippi. And then, while Stella is in
labor at the hospital, Stanley rapes Blanche.

Stella
cannot believe the story Blanche tells her about the man she loves. And
Blanche's grasp on reality is otherwise shattered. So, with supreme remorse,
Stella has Blanche committed. In the final scene of the play, Stella sobs in
agony and the rest look on indifierently as a doctor and a nurse lead Blanche
away.

Scene
1 Summary

The
scene is the exterior of a corner building on a street called Elysian Fields,
in a poor section of New Orleans with "rafish charm." The building
has two ats: upstairs live Steve and Eunice, downstairs Stanley and Stella.
Voices and the bluesy notes of an old piano emanate from an unseen bar around
the corner. It is early May, evening.

Eunice
and a Negro woman are relaxing on the steps of the building when Stanley and
Mitch show up. Stanley hollers for Stella, who comes out onto the first oor
landing. Stanley hurls a package of meat up to her. He and Mitch are going to
meet Steve at the bowling alley; Stella soon follows to watch them. Eunice and
the Negro woman in particular find something humorously suggestive in the
meat-hurling episode.

Soon
after Stella leaves, her sister Blanche arrives with a suitcase, looking with
disbelief at a slip of paper in her hand and then at the building. She is
"daintily" dressed and moves tentatively, looking and apparently
feeling out of place in this neighborhood. Eunice assures her that this is
where Stella lives. The Negro woman goes to the bowling alley to tell Stella of
her sister's arrival while Eunice lets Blanche into the two-room at. Eunice
makes small talk. We learn that Blanche is from Mississippi, that she is a
teacher, that her family estate is called Belle Reve. Blanche finally asks to
be left alone.

Eunice,
somewhat offended, leaves to help fetch Stella. Blanche, trying to control her
discomfort, nerves, and whatever else, spies a bottle of whiskey and downs a
shot.

Stella
returns. The women embrace, and Blanche talks feverishly, nearly hysterical.
Blanche is clearly critical of the physical and social setting in which Stella
lives. She tries to check her criticism, but the reunion begins on a tense and
probably familiar note. Blanche tells Stella that she has been given a leave of
absence from school due to her nerves, and that is why she is here in the
middle of the term. She wants Stella to tell her how she looks, and in return
comments on Stella's plumpness. She fusses over Stella, is surprised to learn Stella
has no maid, takes another drink, worries about the privacy and decency of her
staying in the apartment when Stella and Stanley are in the next room with no
door, and worries whether Stanley will like her.

Stella
warns Blanche that Stanley is very difierent from the men with whom Blanche is
familiar back home. She is quite clearly deeply in love with him. In an
outburst that builds to a crescendo of hysteria, Blanche reveals that she has
lost Belle Reve and recounts how she sufiered through the agonizingly slow
deaths of their parents and relatives{all while, according to Blanche, Stella
was in bed with her "Polack." Stella finally cuts her off, then
leaves the room, crying. Blanche begins to apologize, but the men are
returning.

They
discuss plans for tomorrow's poker night, then break up. Stanley enters the
apartment and sizes Blanche up. The two make small talk, with Stanley in the
lead and Blanche reacting. Stanley asks what happened to Blanche's marriage.
Blanche replies haltingly that the "boy" died. She sits down and
declares that she feels ill.

Scene
2 Summary

Six
o'clock the following day. Blanche is taking a bath. Stella tells Stanley to be
kind to Blanche because she has undergone the ordeal of losing Belle Reve (the
family estate). Stanley is more interested in what happened to the proceeds of
the supposed sale. He thinks Stella has been swindled out of her rightful
share, which means that he has been swindled. Angrily he pulls all of Blanche's
belongings out of her trunk, looking for a bill of sale. To him, Blanche's
somewhat tawdry clothing and rhinestone jewelry look like finery{all that
remains of the estate's value. Enraged at Stanley's actions, Stella storms out
onto the porch.

Blanche
finishes her bath. She sends Stella out to the drug store to buy a soda while
she and Stanley have their discussion. With her blend of irtation, nonsense,
sincerity, and desperation, Blanche manages to disarm Stanley and convince him
that no fraud has been perpetrated against anyone. Blanche is horrified when
Stanley opens and begins to read the old letters and love poems from her
husband. Stanley lets slip that Stella is going to have a baby. Stella returns
from the drugstore and some of the men arrive for their poker game. Exhilarated
by the news of Stella's pregnancy and by her own handling of the situation with
Stanley, Blanche follows Stella for their girls' night out.

Scene
3 Summary

It's
two-thirty a.m. the same night. Steve, Pablo, Mitch, and Stanley are playing
poker in the Kowalski's kitchen. Their patter goes back and forth, heavy with
testosterone. Stella and Blanche return and Stella makes in- troductions.
Blanche immediately determines something "superior to the others" in
Mitch; Mitch's awkwardness seems to indicate an attraction on his part, as
well.

Stella
and Blanche share a sisterly chat in the back room while the poker game
continues. Stanley, drunk, hollers at them to be quiet. Blanche turns on the
radio, which again rouses Stanley's ire. The other men enjoy the rhumba, but
Stanley springs up and shuts off the radio. He and Blanche stare each other
down. Mitch skips the next hand and goes to the bathroom. Waiting for Stella to
finish, he and Blanche talk. Blanche is a little drunk, too. They discuss
Mitch's sick mother, the sincerity of sick and sorrowful people, and the
inscription on Mitch's cigarette case. Blanche claims that she is actually
younger than Stella. She asks Mitch to put a Chinese lantern she has bought
over the naked bulb. As they talk Stanley is growing more annoyed at Mitch's
absence. Stella leaves the bathroom and Blanche impulsively turns the radio
back on. Stanley leaps up, rushes to the radio, and hurls it out the window.

Stella
yells at Stanley and he begins to beat her. The men pull him off. Blanche takes
Stella and some clothes to Eunice's apartment upstairs. Stanley goes limp and
seems confused, but when the men try to force him into the shower to sober him
up he fights them off. They grab their winnings and leave.

Stanley
stumbles out of the bathroom, calling for Stella. He phones upstairs, then
phones again, before hurling the phone to the oor. Half-dressed he stumbles out
to the street and calls for her again and again: "STELL- LAHHHHH!"
Eunice gives him a piece of her mind, but to no avail. Finally, Stella slips out
of the apartment and down to where Stanley is. They stare at each other and
then rush together with "animal moans." He falls to his knees,
caresses her face and belly, then lifts her up and carries her into their at.

Blanche
emerges from Eunice's at, looking for Stella. She stops short at the entrance
to the downstairs at. Mitch returns and tells her not to worry, that the two
are crazy about each other. He offers her a cigarette. She thanks him for his
kindness.

Scene
4 Summary

Early
the next morning, Stella lies serenely in the bedroom, her face aglow. Blanche,
who has not slept, enters the apartment. She demands to know how Stella could
go back and spend the night with Stanley after what he did to her. Stella feels
Blanche is making a big issue out of nothing. Yet Blanche goes on about how she
must figure out a way to get them both out of this situation, how she recently
ran into an old friend who struck it rich in oil, and perhaps he would be able
to help them. Stella pays little attention to what Blanche says; she has no
desire to leave. She says that Blanche merely saw Stanley at his worst. Blanche
feels she saw at his most characteristic{and this is what terrifies her.

Blanche
simply cannot understand how a woman raised in Belle Reve could choose to live
her life with a man who has "not one particle" of a gentleman in him,
about whom there is "something downright{bestial..."

Stella's
reply is that "there are things that happen between a man and a woman in
the dark{that sort of make everything else seem{unimportant." This is just
desire, says Blanche, and not a basis for marriage.

A
train approaches, and while it roars past Stanley enters the at unheard. Not
knowing that Stanley is listening, Blanche holds nothing back.

She
describes him as common, an animal, ape-like, a primitive brute. Stella listens
coldly. Under cover of another passing train, Stanley slips out of the
apartment, then enters it noisily. Stella runs to Stanley and embraces him
fiercely. Stanley grins at Blanche.

Scene
5 Summary

It
is mid-August. Stella and Blanche are in the bedroom. Blanche finishes writing
an utterly fabricated letter to the old friend she recently ran into, then
bursts into laughter. She reads from the letter to Stella, breaking off when
the noise of Steve and Eunice's fighting upstairs grows too loud. Eunice storms
off to a bar around the corner. Nursing a bruise on his forehead, Steve follows
her. Stanley enters the apartment in full bowling regalia. He is rude to
Blanche and insinuates some knowledge of her past. Finally, he asks her if she
knows a certain man. This man often travels to Blanche's town, and claims she
was often a client of a disreputable hotel. Blanche denies it, insisting the
man must have confused her with someone else. Stanley says he'll have the man
check on it. He heads off to the bar, telling Stella to meet him there.

Blanche
is shaken to the core by Stanley's remarks. Stella doesn't seem to take much
notice. Blanche demands to know what Stella has heard about her, what people
have been saying. Stella doesn't know what she's talking about. Blanche admits
she was not "so good" the last two years, as she was losing Belle
Reve. She quite lucidly describes herself as soft, dependent, reliant on
Chinese lanterns and light colors. She admits that she no longer has the youth
or beauty to glow in the soft light. Stella doesn't want to hear her talk like
this.

Stella
brings Blanche a drink. She likes to wait on Blanche; it reminds her of their
childhood. Blanche becomes hysterical, promising to leave soon, before Stanley
throws her out. Stella calms her for a moment, but when she accidentally spills
her drink slightly on her skirt, Blanche begins to shriek.

She
is shaking and tries to laugh it off. At last she admits that she is nervous
about her relationship with Mitch. She has been very prim and proper with him;
she wants his respect, but doesn't want him to lose interest. She wants him
very badly, needs him as a stabilizing force. Stella assures her that it will
happen. She kisses her older sister and runs off to meet Stanley.

Blanche
sits alone in the apartment and waits. A young man comes to the door collecting
for the newspaper. Blanche irts with him, offers him a drink, and generally
works her wiles. The young man is very nervous and would like to leave. Blanche
declares that he looks like an Arabian prince.

She
kisses him on the lips then sends him on his way. "I've got to be
good," she says, "and keep my hands off children." A few moments
later, Mitch appears with a bunch of roses. She accepts them irtatiously while
he glows.

Scene
6 Summary

Two
a.m. the same night. Blanche and Mitch appear. She is exhausted, he seems a bit
depressed. Mitch apologizes for not giving her much entertainment this evening,
but Blanche says it was her fault. She reveals that she will be leaving soon.
They discuss a goodnight kiss and the other night by the lake when Mitch tried
for a bit more "familiarity." Blanche explains that a single girl
must keep her urges under control or else she is "lost." Perhaps he
is used to woman who like to be lost on the first date. Mitch says he likes her
simply because she is difierent from anyone he has ever met. Blanche laughs and
invites him in for a nightcap.

Blanche
lights a candle and prepares drinks. Mitch remains standing awkwardly. He won't
take his coat off because he's embarrassed about his perspiration. They discuss
Mitch's imposing physique, her slighter one, and this leads to a brief and
somewhat clumsy embrace. Blanche stops him, claiming she has
"old-fashioned ideals" (she rolls her eyes as she offers this gem,
but he cannot see her face). After an awkward silence, Mitch asks where Stanley
and Stella are, and why the four of them never go out together.

Mitch
asks Blanche how old she is. He has told his ailing mother about Blanche, but
could not tell her how old Blanche was. His mother is not long for the world
and wants to see him settled. Blanche says she understands how he will miss his
mother when she's gone. She understands what it is to be lonely. She gives a
revealing account of what happened with the tender young man she married. She
loved him terribly but somehow it didn't seem to be enough to save him from
whatever it was that tormented him. Then one day she came home to find her
young husband in bed with an older man who had been his longtime friend. At
first they all pretended nothing happened.

They
went out to a casino together, the three of them. On the dance floor she
drunkenly confronted him, telling him he disgusted her. Then the boy rushed out
of the casino and everyone heard a shot. He killed himself.

Mitch
comes to her and holds her, comforting her. "You need somebody. And I need
somebody, too," he says. "Could it be{you and me, Blanche?" They
kiss, even as she sobs. "Sometimes{there's God{so quickly," she says.

Scene
7 Summary

Late
afternoon, mid-September. Stella is decorating for Blanche's birthday. Stanley
comes in. Blanche is in the bathroom, bathing, and Stanley mocks her to Stella.
He tells Stella to sit down and listen because he's got the dirt on Blanche
now. As Blanche, unconcerned, sings "It's Only a Paper Moon," Stanley
gleefully recounts to Stella how Blanche earned a notorious reputation at the
Flamingo hotel and was asked to leave (presumably for immoral behavior
unacceptable even by the standards of that establishment).

She
came to be regarded as "nuts" by the town and was declared
'off-limits' to soldiers at a nearby base. She was not given a leave of absence
by her school; she was kicked out for having a relationship with a
seventeen-year-old boy.

Stella
defends her sister. She's not convinced this story is true{certainly not all of
it. Stanley tells Stella not to expect Mitch for the birthday dinner. He has
told Mitch all he heard, and there's no way Mitch will marry her now.

Stanley
has bought Blanche a birthday present: a one-way bus ticket back to Laurel,
Mississippi. He yells at Blanche to get out of the bathroom. She emerges at
last, in high spirits. But Stanley's face as he passes by gives her a fright.
And the dazed way that Stella responds to her chatter alerts her that something
is wrong. She asks Stella what has happened, but Stella can only feebly lie
that nothing has.

Scene
8 Summary

Three
quarters of an hour later, the birthday dinner is winding down. The place set
for Mitch is empty. It has obviously been a strained meal. Blanche tries to
break the gloomy silence by asking Stanley to tell a story. He declines. So
Blanche tells one herself- -a lame joke involving a priest and a swearing
parrot. Stanley pointedly does not laugh. Instead, he reaches across the table
for a chop and eats it with his fingers. Stella scolds him. He smashes his
plate, declares that he is sick and tired of being called "pig Polack
disgusting vulgar greasy!" He is the king of this house. He smashes his
cup and saucer and storms out onto the porch. Blanche again asks Stella what happened
while she was taking a bath. What did Stanley tell Stella about her? Nothing,
Stella says, but she is clearly upset.

Although
Stella implores her not to, Blanche calls Mitch's house to find out why he
stood her up. Mitch is not home. Stella goes to Stanley out on the porch. They
embrace, and Stanley promises her things will be all right again after the baby
comes and Blanche leaves. Stella goes back inside and lights the candles.
Blanche and Stanley join her. Stanley's patent ill will produces another tense
exchange with Blanche. One of Stanley's bowling buddies calls up. While he's on
the phone, Stanley unnecessarily yells at Blanche to be quiet. She tries her
best to control her nerves. Stanley returns to the table, and with a thin
veneer of kindness offers Blanche a birthday envelope. She is surprised and
delighted|until she opens it and Stanley declares its contents: a one-way
ticket back to Laurel, Mississippi on a Greyhound bus, leaving Tuesday.

Blanche
tries to smile, tries to laugh, runs to the bedroom, and then to the bathroom,
clutching her throat and making gagging noises, as if Stanley's cruelty has
literally taken her breath away. Stanley, pleased with himself and his just
actions (considering, he says, "all I took off her"), prepares to go
bowling. But Stella demands to know why Stanley has treated Blanche so
callously. He reminds her that Stella thought he was common when they first
met, but that he took her off her pedestal and things were wonderful until
Blanche arrived. While he speaks, a sudden change comes over Stella.

She
slowly shufies from the bedroom to the kitchen, then quietly asks to be taken
to the hospital. Stanley is with her in an instant, speaking softly as he leads
her out the door.

Scene
9 Summary

Later
the same evening, a scarlet-robed Blanche sits tensely on a bedroom chair. On a
nearby table are a bottle of liquor and a glass. We hear polka music, but not
from the radio: it's playing in her own head. She is drinking, we are told in
the stage directions, not to think about impending disaster.

Mitch
appears in work clothes, unshaven, making no attempt to play the gentleman
caller. He rings the doorbell and startles Blanche. She asks who it is, and
when he replies, the polka music stops. She frantically scurries about,
applying powder to her face, stashing the liquor in a closet, before letting
him in with a cheerful reprimand. Mitch walks right past her proffered lips
into the apartment. Blanche is frightened but takes it in stride. She continues
in her light and airy mode, scolding him for his appearance and forgiving him
in the same breath. Mitch stares at her, clearly a bit drunk. He asks her to
turn off the fan; she does so. She offers him a drink, but Mitch doesn't want
Stanley's liquor. She backs off, but the polka music begins again. It's the
same tune that was played, she says out loud, when Allen (her husband)...She
breaks off, waiting for the gunshot. It comes, and the music subsides. Mitch
has no idea what she's talking about.

Blanche
goes to the closet and pretends to discover the bottle. She takes her charade
so far as to ask out loud what Southern Comfort is. Mitch does not bite, but
bides his time, getting up the nerve to say what he has come to say. Blanche
tells Mitch to take his foot off the bed, and goes on about the liquor. Mitch
again declines. Stanley has complained to him that Blanche drinks all of his
liquor. At last Blanche asks point blank what is on his mind.

Mitch
says it's dark in the room. He has never seen her in the light, never in the
afternoon. She has always made excuses on Sunday afternoons, only gone out with
him after six, and then never to well-lit places. He's never had a good look at
her. Mitch tears the paper lantern off the lightbulb. He wants a dose of
realism. "I don't want realism, I want magic," replies Blanche.
"I try to give that to people... I don't tell truth, I tell what ought to
be truth.

And
if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it." She begs him not to turn
the light on. He turns it on. She lets out a cry. He turns it off. Mitch is not
so concerned about her age; what he can't stomach is the garbage and excuses
about her morals and old-fashioned ideals that he's been forced to swallow all
summer. Blanche tries to defend herself, but Mitch has heard stories about her
from three difierent sources and is convinced. She breaks, and admits the truth
through convulsive sobs and shots of liquor.

She
had many intimacies with strangers. She panicked after Allan's death, did not
know she what she was doing and eventually ended up in trouble with the
seventeen-year-old. She found hope when she met Mitch, but the past caught up
with her. "You lied to me, Blanche," is all Mitch can say. In her
heart she never lied to him, Blanche replies. Mitch is unmoved.

A
blind Mexican woman comes around the corner with bunches of tin owers used at
Mexican funerals. "Flores. Flores para los muertos," the woman
intones. (Flowers. Flowers for the dead.) Blanche goes to the door, opens it,
sees and hears the woman (who calls to her and offers her owers), and slams the
door, terrified. The woman moves slowly down the street, calling. We hear the
polka tune again.

Blanche
begins to speak as if she were thinking out loud. Her lines are punctuated by
the Mexican woman's calls. Her tortured soliloquy mentions regrets, legacies,
death, her dying parents, death and agony everywhere, desire as the opposite of
death, the soldiers from the nearby camp who staggered drunkenly onto her lawn
and called for her while her deaf mother slept. The polka music fades. Wanting
what he's been waiting for all summer, Mitch walks up to her, places his hands
on her waist and tries to embrace her.

Blanche
says he must marry her first. Mitch doesn't want to marry her; he does not
think she's fit to live in the same house as his mother. Blanche orders him to
leave. When he does not move, she threatens to scream 'Fire.' He still does not
leave, so she screams out the window. Mitch hurries out.

Scene
10 Summary

A
few hours have elapsed since Mitch's departure. Blanche's trunk is out in the middle
of the bedroom. She has been packing, drinking, trying on clothes and speaking
to imaginary admirers. Stanley enters the apartment, slams the door and gives a
low whistle when he sees Blanche. Blanche asks about her sister. The baby won't
be born until tomorrow, says Stanley. It's just the two of them at home
tonight.

Stanley
asks why Blanche is all dressed up. She tells him that she has just received a
telegram from an old admirer inviting her to join him on his yacht in the
Caribbean. It was the oil millionaire she met again in Miami. Stanley plays
along. In high spirits, he opens a bottle of beer on the corner of the table
and pours the foam on his head. He offers her a sip but she declines.

He
goes to the bedroom to find his special pajamas top in anticipation of the good
news from the hospital. Blanche keeps talking, feverishly working herself up as
she describes what a gentleman this man is and how he merely wants the
companionship of an intelligent, spirited, tender, cultured woman.

She
may be poor financially, but she is rich in these qualities. And she has been
foolishly lavishing these offerings on those who do not deserve them{ as she
puts it, casting her pearls before swine. Stanley's amicable mood evaporates.

Blanche
claims that she sent Mitch away after he repeated slanderous lies that Stanley
had told him. He came groveling back, with roses and apologies, but in vain.
She cannot forgive "deliberate cruelty," and realistically the two of
them are too difierent in attitude and upbringing for it ever to work.

Stanley
cuts in with a question that trips up her improvisation. Then he launches an
attack, tearing down her make-believe world point by point. She can make no
reply but, "Oh!" He finishes with a disdainful laugh and walks
through the bedroom on into the bathroom. Frightening shadows and re ections
appear in the room. Blanche goes to the phone and tries to make a call to her
"admirer." She does not know his number or his address. The operator
hangs up; Blanche leaves the phone off the hook and walks into the kitchen.

The
special efiects continue: inhuman voices, terrifying shadows. A strange scene
takes place on a sidewalk beyond the back wall of the rooms (which has suddenly
become transparent). A drunkard and a prostitute scufie until a police whistle
sounds and they disappear. Soon thereafter the Negro woman comes around the
corner ri ing through the prostitute's purse.

Blanche
returns to the phone and whispers to the operator to connect her to Western
Union. She tries to send a telegraph: "In desperate, desperate
circumstances. Help me! Caught in a trap. Caught in{".... She breaks off
when Stanley emerges from the bathroom in his special pajamas. He stares at
her, grinning. Then crosses over to the phone and replaces it on the hook.

Still
grinning, he steps between Blanche and the door. She asks him to move and he
takes one step to the side. She asks him to move further away but he will not.
The jungle voices well up again as he slowly advances towards her. Blanche
tells him to stay back but he continues towards her. She backs away, grabs a
bottle, and smashes the end of it on the table. He jumps at her, grabs her arm
when she swings at him, and forces her to drop the bottle.

"We've
had this date from the beginning," he says. She sinks to her knees. He
picks her up and carries her to the bed.

Scene
11 Summary

A
few weeks later. Stella is packing Blanche's belongings while Blanche takes a
bath. Stella has been crying. The men are assembled in the kitchen playing
poker. Of them, only Mitch does not seem to be in the usual card-playing bull
and bravado mood. Eunice comes downstairs and enters the apartment.

Eunice
calls them callous and goes over to Stella. Stella tells Eunice she is not sure
she did the right thing. She told Blanche that they had arranged for her to
stay in the country, and Blanche seemed to think it had to do with her
millionaire admirer. Stella couldn't believe the story Blanche told her about
the rape and still continue her life with Stanley. Eunice comforts her.

It
was the only thing Stella could do, and she should never believe the story.
"Life has got to go on," Eunice says.

The
men continue playing poker. Blanche emerges from the bathroom to the strains of
the by-now familiar waltz. Stella and Eunice are gentle and complimenting;
Blanche has a slightly unhinged vivacity. The sound of Blanche's voice sends
Mitch into a daydream until Stanley snaps him out of it. Stanley's voice from
the kitchen stuns Blanche. She remains still for a few moments, then with a
rising hysteria demands to know what is going on. The women quiet and soothe
her and the men restrain Stanley from interfering.

She
is appeased for the moment, but anxious to leave. The other women convince her
to wait a moment yet. Blanche goes into a reverie, imagining her death at sea
from food poisoning with a handsome young ship's doctor at her side.

The
doctor and nurse arrive. Eunice goes to see who's at the door. Blanche waits
tensely, hoping that it is Shep Huntleigh, her millionaire savior. Eunice
returns and announces that someone is calling for Blanche. The waltz begins
again. Blanche and Stella pass through the kitchen and cross to the door. The
poker players stand as she passes, except for Mitch, who stares at the table.
When Blanche steps out onto the porch and sees the doctor, and not Shep
Huntleigh, she retreats to where Stella is standing, then slips back into the
apartment. Inside, Stanley steps up to block her way. Blanche rushes around
him, claiming she forgot something, as the weird re ections and shadows return.
The doctor sends the nurse in after her. What follows is a wrenching capture
scene, which Stella cannot bear to watch. She rushes to the porch, where Eunice
goes to comfort her. The nurse succeeds in pinning Blanche. The doctor enters,
and at Blanche's soft request tells the nurse to release her. The doctor leads
her out of the bedroom, she holding onto his arm.

"Whoever
you are," she says, "I have always depended on the kindness of
strangers." The doctor leads her through the kitchen as the poker players
look on. They head out the door and onto the porch. Stella, now crouched on the
porch in agony, calls out her sister's name. Blanche, allowing herself to be
led onward, does not turn to look at Stella. Doctor, nurse, and Blanche turn
the corner and disappear. Eunice brings the baby to Stella and thrusts it into
her arms, then goes to the kitchen to join the men. Stanley goes out onto the
porch and over to Stella, who sobs over her child. He comforts her and begins
to caress her. In the kitchen, Steve deals a new hand.